CHAPTER V. MB. WATT'S EMPLOYMENT BY THE COLLEGE OF GLASGOW-HIS ESTABLISHMENT WITHIN ITS WALLS AS MATHEMATICAL-INSTRUMENT-MAKER TO THE UNIVERSITY PROGRESS IN HIS BUSINESS 66 SHOP-KEEPING HIS INSTRU CONSTRUCTION OF ORGANS AND OTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AN occasion soon presented itself for the advantageous employment of that little stock in trade which we have just described, as well as of the newly-acquired skill of its owner. On the 25th of October, 1756, he writes from Glasgow to his father:-"I would have come down [to Greenock] today, but that there are some instruments that are come "from Jamaica that Dr. Dick desired that I would help to "unpack, which are expected to-day." The instruments here spoken of formed a valuable collection, which had been completed at great cost by the best makers in London, for their late proprietor Mr. Alexander Macfarlane, a merchant, long resident in Jamaica, and a cadet of the ancient feudal house of Macfarlane of that Ilk; who seems, amid his mercantile pursuits, not to have forgotten the motto of his family" Astra castra, Numen lumen;"" The stars my "camp, the LORD my light;"-and who, dying in 1755, bequeathed the contents of his observatory to the University in which he had received his education. The great astronomer Oltmanns, the companion of Humboldt, in mentioning, among some observations from which various latitudes and longitudes in the West Indies were accurately determined, those which Mr. Macfarlane had made, at Port Royal, near Kingston, Jamaica,* has said :-" Macfarlane was provided with excellent Phil. Trans.' for 1723, p. 235, and for 1750, p. 523. 66 English instruments, and very skilful in the theory and practice of astronomy.' The minute of a University meeting on the 26th of October, bears that "Several of the instruments from Jamaica having "suffered by the sea-air, especially those made of iron, Mr. "Watt, who is well skilled in what relates to the cleaning "and preserving of them, being accidentally in town, Mr. "Moor and Dr. Dick are appointed to desire him to stay some time in town to clean them, and put them in the best "order for preserving them from being spoiled." On the 2nd of December the same records bear that "a precept was signed "to pay James Watt five pounds sterling for cleaning and "refitting the instruments lately come from Jamaica; "—this being, in all probability, the first money he had earned on his own account since the termination of his brief apprenticeship. His next object was to endeavour to establish himself in the way of his trade in the city of Glasgow; but here he was met by obstacles of the same sort as those which in London had first well-nigh excluded him from the brief instruction which he sought, and then might have consigned him, without hope of rescue, to the embraces of the pressgang. Neither being the son of a burgess, nor having, as yet, married the daughter of one, nor having served a regular apprenticeship to a craft, he was visited, by tradesmen of more arrogant and far more unfounded pretensions than the modest youth whom they persecuted, with a sort of temporal excommunication; and was forbidden to set up even a humble workshop, himself its solitary tenant, within the limits of the burgh. He now signally found the advantage of that academical support which the University uniformly extended to him. By midsummer, 1757, he had received permission to occupy an apartment and open a shop within the precincts of the College, and to use the designation of "Mathematical-instrument-maker to the "University;" and, though it does not appear that any con * Recueil d'Observations Astro- Bonpland,' Quatrième Partie, tome 'nomiques, Voyage de Humboldt et ii., p. 589, ed. 1810. 66 temporaneous record has been preserved in the archives of the University of the date of the workshop having been assigned to him, we find that on the 27th of November, 1759, directions were given for having " the room above Mr. Watt's "workshop" repaired. In the autumn of 1757, the foundation-stone of an astronomical observatory, to receive the collection of instruments which he had refitted and set up, and to be called the Macfarlane Observatory, was laid, he being then twenty-one years of age. At the same time, however, he had the sorrow and misfortune to lose his able and true friend, Dr. Dick; and the result, in a pecuniary point of view, of this first year of his business, was very far from being a hopeful one. On the 15th September, 1758, (the year in which his old master, Morgan, died), he thus writes from Glasgow to his father:-" As I have now had a year's trial here, I am able "to form a judgment of what may be made of this business, " and find that unless it be the Hadley's instruments, there is "little to be got by it, as at most other jobs I am obliged to "do the most of them myself; and as it is impossible for one "person to be expert at everything, they very often cost me more time than they should do. However, if there could "be a ready sale procured for Hadley's quadrants, I could do "very well, as I and one lad can finish three in a week easily; "and selling them at 28s. 6d., which is vastly below what 66 66 they were ever sold at before, I have 408. clear on the "three. So it will be absolutely necessary that I take a trip "to Liverpool to look for customers, and hope that upon the "profits of what I shall be able to sell there, I can go to "London in the spring, when I make no doubt of selling 66 more than I can get made; all which I want your advice "on. And if that does not succeed, I must fall into some "other way of business, as this will not do in its present "situation." The sale, however, of the profitable Hadley's instruments at home appears to have increased so much, as * See Deeds instituting Bur-University of Glasgow,' 1850: 4to., 'saries, Scholarships, and other p. 215. Foundations in the College and 66 English instruments, and very skilful in the theory and "practice of astronomy." The minute of a University meeting on the 26th of October, bears that "Several of the instruments from Jamaica having "suffered by the sea-air, especially those made of iron, Mr. "Watt, who is well skilled in what relates to the cleaning "and preserving of them, being accidentally in town, Mr. "Moor and Dr. Dick are appointed to desire him to stay "some time in town to clean them, and put them in the best "order for preserving them from being spoiled." On the 2nd of December the same records bear that "a precept was signed "to pay James Watt five pounds sterling for cleaning and refitting the instruments lately come from Jamaica ; "—this being, in all probability, the first money he had earned on his own account since the termination of his brief apprenticeship. 66 His next object was to endeavour to establish himself in the way of his trade in the city of Glasgow; but here he was met by obstacles of the same sort as those which in London had first well-nigh excluded him from the brief instruction which he sought, and then might have consigned him, without hope of rescue, to the embraces of the pressgang. Neither being the son of a burgess, nor having, as yet, married the daughter of one, nor having served a regular apprenticeship to a craft, he was visited, by tradesmen of more arrogant and far more unfounded pretensions than the modest youth whom they persecuted, with a sort of temporal excommunication; and was forbidden to set up even a humble workshop, himself its solitary tenant, within the limits of the burgh. He now signally found the advantage of that academical support which the University uniformly extended to him. By midsummer, 1757, he had received permission to occupy an apartment and open a shop within the precincts of the College, and to use the designation of "Mathematical-instrument-maker to the "University;" and, though it does not appear that any con *Recueil d'Observations Astro'nomiques, Voyage de Humboldt et 'Bonpland,' Quatrième Partie, tome ii., p. 589, ed. 1810. 66 temporaneous record has been preserved in the archives of the University of the date of the workshop having been assigned to him, we find that on the 27th of November, 1759, directions were given for having "the room above Mr. Watt's workshop" repaired. In the autumn of 1757, the foundation-stone of an astronomical observatory, to receive the collection of instruments which he had refitted and set up, and to be called the Macfarlane Observatory, was laid, he being then twenty-one years of age. At the same time, however, he had the sorrow and misfortune to lose his able and true friend, Dr. Dick; and the result, in a pecuniary point of view, of this first year of his business, was very far from being a hopeful one. 66 On the 15th September, 1758, (the year in which his old master, Morgan, died), he thus writes from Glasgow to his father:-" As I have now had a year's trial here, I am able "to form a judgment of what may be made of this business, "and find that unless it be the Hadley's instruments, there is little to be got by it, as at most other jobs I am obliged to "do the most of them myself; and as it is impossible for one "person to be expert at everything, they very often cost me "more time than they should do. However, if there could "be a ready sale procured for Hadley's quadrants, I could do very well, as I and one lad can finish three in a week easily; " and selling them at 288. 6d., which is vastly below what 66 66 they were ever sold at before, I have 408. clear on the "three. So it will be absolutely necessary that I take a trip "to Liverpool to look for customers, and hope that upon the "profits of what I shall be able to sell there, I can go to "London in the spring, when I make no doubt of selling more than I can get made; all which I want your advice on. And if that does not succeed, I must fall into some "other way of business, as this will not do in its present "situation." The sale, however, of the profitable Hadley's instruments at home appears to have increased so much, as 66 66 * See 'Deeds instituting Bur University of Glasgow,' 1850: 4to., 'saries, Scholarships, and other p. 215. Foundations in the College and |