The earliest occasion on which the attention of Watt is said to have been called to the agency of steam, was in the year 1759, when his friend Robison entertained some speculations for applying that agent as a means of propelling wheel carriages; and he consulted Watt on the subject. No record, however, has been preserved of any experiments which were tried on this occasion; nor does it appear that the inquiry was carried farther than a verbal discussion, such as habitually took place on other subjects of science between Watt and his friends. (46.) In 1762, Watt tried some experiments on the force of steam at a high pressure, confined in a close digester; and he then constructed a small model to show how motion could be obtained from that power. The practicability of what has since been called the _High Pressure Engine_, was demonstrated by him on this occasion; but he did not pursue the inquiry, on account of the supposed danger of working with such compressed steam as was required. It is usual to provide, in the cabinets of experimental apparatus for the instruction of the students of universities, [Pg084] small working models of the most useful machines. In the collection for the illustration of the lectures delivered to the Natural Philosophy class in the University of Glasgow was a working model of Newcomen's atmospheric engine, applied to a pump for raising water; which, however, had never been found to work satisfactorily. The Professor of Experimental Philosophy of that day, Dr. John Anderson (the founder of the celebrated Andersonian Institution), sent this model in 1763 to Watt's workshop, to be repaired. Its defects soon disappeared, and it was made to work to the satisfaction of the professor and students. This simple discharge of his duty, however, did not satisfy the artisan; and his wonted activity of mind rendered this model a subject of profound meditation, and led him into a course of practical inquiry respecting it, which formed the commencement of a most brilliant career of mechanical discovery. The improvement—we might almost say the creation—of the steam engine, by this great man, must not therefore be regarded, as so often happens with mechanical discoveries, as the result of fortuitous observation, or even of a felicitous momentary inspiration. Watt, on the other hand, conducted his investigation by a course of deep thought, and of experiments marked by the last refinement of delicacy and address. If he had received a more extended and liberal education, one would have thought that he had adopted for his guide the celebrated maxim of Bacon:— "To write, speak, meditate, or act, when we are not provided with _facts_ to direct our thoughts, is to navigate a coast full of dangers without a pilot, and to launch into the immensity of the ocean without either rudder or compass."