s of economizing steam, Watt also
reduced the result of the refrigeration of the external surface of the
cylinder containing the piston, almost to nothing. With this view he
enclosed the metal cylinder in a wooden case of larger diameter, filling
the intermediate annular space with steam.

Now the engine was complete. The improvements effected by Watt are
evident; there can be no doubt of their immense utility. As a means of
drainage, then, you would expect to see them substituted for Newcomen's
comparatively ruinous engines. Undeceive yourselves: the author of a
discovery has always to contend against those whose interest may be
injured, the obstinate partisans of everything old, and finally the
envious. And these three classes united, I regret to acknowledge it,
form the great majority of the public. In my calculation I even deduct
those who are doubly influenced to avoid a paradoxical result. This
compact mass of opponents can only be disunited and dissipated by time;
yet time is insufficient; it must be attacked with spirit and
unceasingly; our means of attack must be varied, imitating the chemist
in this respect--he learning from experience that the entire solution of
certain amalgams requires the successive application of several acids.
Force of character and perseverance of will, which in the long run
disintegrate the best woven intrigues, are not always found conjoined
with creative genius. In case of need, Watt would be a convincing proof
of this. His capital invention--his happy idea on the possibility of
condensing steam in a vessel separate from the cylinder in which the
mechanical action goes on--was in 1765.

Two years elapsed without his scarcely making an effort to apply it on a
large scale. His friends at last put him in communication with Dr.
Roebuck, founder of the large works at Carron, still celebrated at the
present day. The engineer and the man of projects enter into
partnership; Watt cedes two-thirds of his patent to him. An engine is
constructed on the new principles; it confirms all the expectations of
theory; its success is complete. But in the _interim_ Dr. Roebuck's
affairs receive various checks. Watt's invention would undoubtedly have
restored them; it would have sufficed to borrow money; but our associate
felt more inclined to give up his discovery and change his business. In
1767, while Smeaton was carrying on some triangulations and levellings
between the two rivers of the Forth and th