first introduction to Watt, says:
"I saw a workman, and expected no more; but was surprised to find a
philosopher as young as myself, and always ready to instruct me."

It was some time in 1764 that the professor of natural philosophy in
the University desired Watt to repair a pretty model of Newcomen's
steam-engine. Like everything which came into Watt's hands, it soon
became an object of most serious study.

The interesting little model, as altered by the hand of Watt, was
long placed beside the noble statue of the engineer in the Hunterian
Museum at Glasgow. Watt himself, when he had got the bearings of his
invention, could think of nothing else but his machine, and
addressed himself to Dr. Roebuck, of the Carron Iron-works, with the
view of its practical introduction to the world. A partnership
ensued, but the connection did not prove satisfactory. Watt went on
with his experiments, and in September, 1766, wrote to a friend: "I
think I have laid up a stock of experience that will _soon_ pay me
for the trouble it has cost me." Yet it was between eight and nine
years before that invaluable experience was made available, so as
either to benefit the public or repay the inventor; and a much
longer term elapsed before it was possible for that repayment to be
reckoned in the form of substantial profit.

Watt now began to practise as a land-surveyor and civil engineer.
His first engineering work was a survey for a canal to unite the
Forth and Clyde, in furtherance of which he had to appear before the
House of Commons. His consequent journey to London was still more
important, for then it was that he saw for the first time the great
manufactory which Boulton had established at Soho, and of which he
was afterward himself to be the guiding intelligence. In the
meantime, among his other performances, he invented a micrometer for
measuring distances; and, what is still more remarkable, he
entertained the idea of moving canal-boats by the steam-engine
through the instrumentality of a _spiral oar_, which as nearly as
possible coincides with the screw-propeller of our day.

Watt's negotiations for partnership with Boulton were long and
tedious. Dr. Roebuck's creditors concurred because, curiously
enough, _none of them valued Watt's engine at a farthing_. Watt
himself now began to despair, and his health failed; yet in 1774,
when he had removed to Birmingham, he wrote to his father: "The
fire-engine I have invented is now goin