Boulton & Watt

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Boulton & Watt was a world-famous British company from Smethwick near Birmingham, England, which emerged in 1775 as a result of a business relationship between entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and engineer James Watt to manufacture and operate steam engines developed by Watt during the Industrial Revolution to evict. The company, which was continued by the descendants of the founders, existed for over 120 years.

history

Steam engine type Watt
Matthew Boulton
James Watt

The business relationship between the English entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and the Scottish engineer James Watt began a few years before 1765 when the steam engine financed by Matthew Boulton and designed by James Watt (which was a major improvement on the first usable piston steam engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 ) received a patent and was in turn introduced on the international market by Matthew Boulton.

The company was founded in 1775 with the aim of selling steam engines and developing improved versions and bringing them to market. Its headquarters, the company had in Smethwick in Birmingham (England) and the core of the joint undertaking was the foundry Soho Foundry in the same place. In the following years, Boulton & Watt sold steam engines all over the world with great success and equipped numerous manufacturing companies of various kinds with them, as well as power stations and mines .

In 1800 the company passed to two of the sons of Matthew Boulton and James Watt and they continued the business until the mid-19th century with even greater success.

Boulton & Watt delivered in 1806 the American engineer Robert Fulton a steam engine to drive the constructed by him Dampfschiffs North River Steamboat . The Fulton side-wheel steamer made its maiden voyage in 1807 and was the first commercially successful steamship.

In the further course of the 19th century, the company also developed special types of steam engines such as the rotary steam engine , which was specially designed for use in mills and breweries .

The business success of the company continued for years, so that it existed for over 120 years and in 1895 was still producing steam engines of various types and sizes.

When the Boulton & Watt company closed its doors forever in 1910, it left an extremely detailed archive with the documentation of all its activities since 1775. This archive and all operating documents were given to the City of Birmingham in 1911, where they are kept to this day .

Preserved machines

The oldest still working steam engine is a Smethwick steam engine (Smethwick Engine) from 1779, now on display in the Birmingham Science museum , originally installed on the Birmingham-Wolverhampton Canal above a series of locks in Smethwick .

Another Boulton & Watt steam engine from 1812 that has survived and is still operational today is located at Crofton Pumping Station , a pumping station near the village of Great Bedwyn in the English county of Wiltshire .

In the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney / Australia is the oldest surviving operational rotary steam engine in the world, built by Boulton & Watt in 1785, originally delivered to the Whitbread brewery in London and in operation there for 102 years.

See also

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