James Watt (1736-1819), Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) and William Murdoch (1754-1839) have been honoured with this gilded monument in the centre of Birmingham. In 1764, Scotsman James Watt mended a steam engine designed by Cornish engineer Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729) and devised several major improvements. Ten years later, he formed a very successful partnership with Matthew Boulton in Birmingham, manufacturing steam engines to his pioneering design. William Murdoch worked for Boulton and Watt, and added a number of key refinements ensuring that steam engines were commercially viable, and the power behind Britain’s historic industrial revolution.
IN 1777, after walking there all the way from Scotland in search of work, twenty-three-year-old William Murdoch sat in the offices of the engineering firm of Boulton and Watt in Smethwick, fiddling nervously with his hat.
Matthew Boulton had to disappoint William, as the firm was not hiring, but to ease the awkwardness remarked on the hat. It seemed curiously stiff, and even to have been painted. ‘What is it made of?’ he inquired in wonder. ‘Timber,’ replied William. ‘I made it myself, sir, on a lathe of my own contriving.’ Impressed with the wooden hat, but more so with the home-made lathe, Boulton promised to see what could be done, and William left, still fiddling with his hat.
Soon after, Murdoch was engaged at 15s a week. James Watt came to rely on his ingenuity and energy in equal measure, and in 1781 they developed the first commercial rotative steam engine, nothing less than the power behind the machinery of the industrial revolution.*
See also The Genius Next Door, which tells how Murdoch’s experiments with steam traction led directly to the first steam locomotive.
Précis
In 1777, young Scotsman William Murdoch walked to Birmingham in search of work. His home-made timber hat piqued his prospective employer’s curiosity, and realising the young man was unusually clever with his hands, he found him a place. Working alongside James Watt, William went on to be one of the Fathers of the Industrial Revolution. (54 / 60 words)
