A Brief History of Britain, 1660-1851 by William Gibson

Author:William Gibson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781849018159
Publisher: Constable & Robinson
Published: 2011-02-16T10:00:00+00:00

6

THE TRANSFORMATION OF BRITAIN’S ECONOMY

The year 1776 was an important one for Britain in many respects. The events in America drew attention away from two important events at home that were dramatically influencing the economy of Britain. In that year the Scotsman James Watt (1736–1819) finally manufactured his own design of steam engine. It had been a long struggle for Watt, who had suffered from ill health and frequent headaches as a child, but proved to be a quick learner. He had trained as an instrument maker, though his interests inclined towards natural philosophy. He made and sold quadrants, compasses, burning-glasses and microscopes, and had a keen interest in pottery manufacture. His desire to become an engineer had been thwarted by the Glasgow Guild of Hammermen, who objected that he had not served the required apprenticeship. He was rescued from disaster by a kindly professor at Glasgow University, who offered him space in his workshop. From 1762 Watt tried out different designs for a steam engine, in an attempt to eliminate the defects of the existing engines.

In 1763 Watt saw a great opportunity when the university planned to repair its Newcomen steam engine. Watt experimented with it at the same time as he repaired it. As we will see later, this – together with his later partnership with the manufacturer Matthew Boulton (1728–1809) – put Watt on the road to his great invention. In March 1776, Watt installed a perfected engine in the Bloomfield colliery in Tipton and, a month later, another at John Wilkinson’s ironworks in Willey, Shropshire. He charged the purchasers of his engines a fee and also a percentage of the fuel savings they made, guaranteeing them some efficiency savings as well as giving Watt two sources of income. Boulton and Watt also insisted on visits to their customers to ensure their machines were correctly assembled. Their machines were sold to almost 500 companies, but although Watt was granted extensions to patents, his designs were widely copied. People found the Boulton and Watt machines fascinating. In the 1770s, Boulton’s Soho factory was a place that tourists visited to watch steam engines at work.

In the same year, Richard Arkwright’s (1733–92) new factory at Birkacre, Lancashire, was burnt down by rioting textile workers who objected to the lower rates of pay he offered. Arkwright was the son of a tailor and had begun work as a wig maker and barber, and even drew teeth. His Birkacre factory was the first in the Chorley area, and contained his new water frame as well as a number of other mechanized processes. The mill, which had previously employed 400 workers, now needed far fewer and was only prepared to pay them lower wages.

The burning of Arkwright’s factory in October 1776 was not the first such action. Months earlier, there had been riots by textile workers in Shepton Mallet in Somerset and they had submitted a petition to Parliament against mechanization. The riot at Birkacre caused Arkwright to abandon his lease on the mill.

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