ewater is still
worse, for it will hardly do at all. The Soho people have sent
here Chacewater pipe instead of Wheal Union, and the gudgeon
pipe has not arrived with the nozzles. These repeated
disappointments will ruin our credit in the country, and I
cannot stay here to bear the shame of such failures of promise.

It is easy for present-day captains of industry to plume themselves upon
their ability to select men sure to succeed well with any undertaking,
and assume that Watt lacked the indispensable talent for selection, but
he had been driven by sad experience to trust none but himself, the
skilled workmen needed to co-operate with him not yet having been
developed.

We have not touched upon another source of great anxiety to him at this
time. The enterprising Boulton would not have been the organiser he was
unless blessed with a sanguine disposition and the capacity for shedding
troubles. The business was rapidly extending in many branches, all
needing capital; the engine business, promising though it was, was no
exception. Little money was yet due from sales and much had been spent
developing the invention. Boulton's letter to Watt constantly urged cash
collections, while mine-owners were not disposed to pay until further
tests were made. Boulton suggested loans from Truro bankers on security
of the engines, but Watt found this impracticable. The engines were
doing astonishingly well to-day, but who could ensure their lasting
qualities? Watt shows good judgment in suggesting that Wilkinson, the
famous foundryman, should be taken into partnership. He urges his
enterprising partner to apply the pruning knife and cut down expenses
naively assuring him that "he was practising all the frugality in his
power." As Watt's personal expenses then were only ten dollars per week,
a smile rises at the prudent Scot's possible contribution to reduction
in expenditure. But he was on the right lines, and at least gave Boulton
the benefit of example. Watt was never disposed to look on the bright
side of things, and to add to Boulton's load, the third partner,
Fothergill, was even more desponding than Watt. When Boulton went away
to raise means, he was pursued by letters from Fothergill telling him
day by day of imperative needs. In one he was of opinion that "the
creditors must be called together; better to face the worst than to go
on in the neck-and-neck race with ruin." Boulton would hurry back to
quiet Fot