gacious manufacturer was disinclined to associate himself with Mr.
Roebuck, then in financial straits, but the position changed when he had
become bankrupt and affairs were in the hands of creditors. Watt
therefore renewed the subject and agreed to go and settle in Birmingham,
as he had been urged to do. Roebuck's pitiable condition he keenly felt,
and had done everything possible to ameliorate.

What little I can do for him is purchased by denying myself the
conveniences of life my station requires, or by remaining in
debt, which it galls me to the bone to owe. I shall be content
to hold a very small share in the partnership, or none at all,
provided I am to be freed from my pecuniary obligations to
Roebuck and have any kind of recompense for even a part of the
anxiety and ruin it has involved me in.

Thus wrote Watt to his friend Small, August 30, 1772. Small's reply
pointed out one difficulty which deserves notice and commendation. "It
is impossible for Mr. Boulton and me, or any other honest man, to
purchase, especially from two particular friends, what has no market
price, and at a time when they might be inclined to part with the
commodity at an under value." This is an objection which to
stock-exchange standards may seem "not well taken," and far too
fantastical for the speculative domain, and yet it is neither
surprising nor unusual in the realms of genuine business, in which men
are concerned with or creating only intrinsic values.

The result so ardently desired by Watt was reached in this unexpected
fashion. It was found that in the ordinary course of business Roebuck
owed Boulton a balance of $6,000. Boulton agreed to take the Roebuck
interest in the Watt patent for the debt. As the creditors considered
the patent interest worthless, they gladly accepted. As Watt said, "it
was only paying one bad debt with another."

Boulton asked Watt to act as his attorney in the matter, which he did,
writing Boulton that "the thing is now a shadow; 'tis merely ideal, and
will cost time and money to realise it." This as late as March 29, 1773,
after eight years of constant experimentation, with many failures and
disappointments, since the discovery of the separate condenser in 1765,
which was then hailed, and rightly so, as the one thing needed. It
remained the right and only foundation upon which to develop the steam
engine, but many minor obstacles intervened, requiring Watt's inventive
an