Correspondence of the late James Watt on his discovery of the theory of the composition of water. With a letter from his son / Edited with introductory remarks and an appendix by James Patrick Muirhead.

  • Watt, James, 1736-1819.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Correspondence of the late James Watt on his discovery of the theory of the composition of water. With a letter from his son / Edited with introductory remarks and an appendix by James Patrick Muirhead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/410
    That coiTespondencc commences about tlie close of the year 1782, and is continued througliout 1783, and })ai‘t of 1 784. Althougli I was at tliat period too young and uninformed to l)e able to appreciate the whole merit of his discovery, I well recollect his conversations with his philosophical friends, and the sentiments he expressed in regard to it. He early directed my attention, both at home and abroad, to Natural Philosophy and Chemistry; and on my re- turn from the Continent in 17.94, when he and Mr. Boulton took me into partnership, together with the late Mr. Robinson Boulton, and my late brother Gre- gory, I was tolerably versed in the facts and doc- trines of the new system of chemistry, which the able writings and genei*alization of Lavoisier had caused to be commonly received. The old nomen- clature was sup[)lanted by the new, although Dr. Priestley, who Pad just retired to the United States, as well as Mr. Keir and some others, formed brilliant exceptions to the universality of its adoption. When the theory of the composition of Avater was spoken of in the presence of my father, he calmly but uniformly sustained his claim to its discovery; and once, on my hinting that it was passed over by some Avriters, and not correctly given by others, he obserA'ed, that hav- ing done all that he and his friends considered requi- site to place it upon record, by the note affixed to his paper of 26th NoA^ember 1783, in the Philosophical Transactions, the accuracy of Avhich had never been