THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1909. MEN WHO ALTERED THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9644, 9 November 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1909. MEN WHO ALTERED THE WORLD.

The coming of the steam engine was probably the most volcanic event in human history in the world of matter. It altered the effect of the world's r. geography; it made impossible things possible; it changed the whole course of the human story. And it is only a hundred years ago eince one of the main human instruments of this revolution died, and Birmingham did well to honour recently its great citizen—Matthew Boulton. 1 Exactly what Boulton did and why he is to be remembered was told in an exceptionally interesting article in the "Birmingham Daily Post." And reading that story makes one realise how little time,in man's life it takes to make revolutions, and how ceaseless is the march of discovery and progress. If, says the writer in the "Post," in the clear light of a summer evening, the panorama of Birmingham lay unfolded from an eminence, anyone who lingered over such a prospect, hearing and seeing the busy hand of Vulcan everywhere, would be paying no extravagant tribute to the memory of one man if he turned for the inspiration of this stirring page of life to the name of Matthew Boulton —Boulton, the father of modern engineering practice; Boulton, the partner of James Watt, and the wise counsellor of his delicate genius; Boulton, the man who fostered and encouraged the marvellous mechanical skill of Murdock. He has no statue in our streets. Scarcely does he need one. Could he return, he might almost repeat the proud saying of the builder of St. Paul's—"Si monumenturn quaeriß, circumspice." One man's [ story becomes inevitably the story of ; three men, and yet that it should be so is not to belittle Boulton's fame, i Tins man, whose rule in life was to be "at the top of everything he undertook," was of all others the sheltering and steadying force which Watt needed to develop, in pain and bodily weakness, the great gifts with which he was endowed. But for the calm assurance with which Boulton faced every trial, Watt's feebler energies must have been crushed a hundred times, and the world would have had to wait for the steam engine; hut for the same inspiration it is hard to believe that the retiring, unambitious Murdock would have risen from an ordinary workman to be the designer of the earliest locomotive, the discoverer of g&s ns an il.uminant, and ihe maker of a I

dozen other inventions of the firs order of usefulness to mankind. Each of these three men, who together succeeded in fixing the eyrs of a continent upon Birmingham, was in his own degree the complemtntof the others. Watt, with a brain of quicksilver, fired with a feverish genius; Murdock, the coo! ex • ecutant, with the sure uand and the steady eye; Boulton, the man of capacity for large affairs. And yet it would be a mistake to regard Boulton as bringing merely to this union of talents the far-seeing mind of a great business general. He was not only an administrative genius, but possessed constructive ability which, if not of the highest order, enabled the partners to produce a serviceable steam engine much sooner than would otherwise have been the case. His earlier career, before he met with Watt and Murdock, affords abundant evidence of his versatility and resource. Prom a small manufactory of steel toy?, situated opposite the end of Slaney Street, in the Snow H»h neighbourhood—then a pleasant country suburb nf Birmitgharn—he conceived what was for that time a gigantic scheme. His mind was full of great works. He saw in the wild neath of Soho, over wh'ch the huntsmen roamed at will, an ideal site for his future undertakings. Here he would be able not only to space his buildings generously, but also to obtain water power to move the machinery of his trade. In new and ample surroundings, peopled by men whom he ha d trained and could trust, he would work determinedly to remove the stigma of "Brummagem,"' the synonym of the day for all things cheap and shoddy. At a cost of £20,000 he built the renowned Soho Works, the future home of many inventions, destined to become a centre to which the skilled craftsmen of a nation turned instinctively for guidance. In his new shops there was room for a thousand hands, and gradually, as Boulton was feeling his way towards the employment of this number, he added branch after branch to his business. He continued making his steel toys—was it Burke who called Birmingham the toyshop of the world?—but soon he introduced to Soho the manufacture of silver plate, and afterwards the making of ormolu clock* was another venture. For an example of the wide range of craftmanship in the extraordinary works of which Boulton remained the head, we must note h ; s utilisation of the steam engine in the stamping of metals. The city was over run with base coins, and sent a flood of it through the whole country. Bou Iton, ever mindful of his early determination to remove the reproach of "Brummagen," came to the rescue of the Government. He set up the Soho Mint, and designed the whole of the machinery, with two objects in view, both of which he succeeded in achieving. The first was to introduce coins of greater artistic value than those then in circulation, and the second to check the manufacture of base coin by making tbe genuine so superior that no counterfeit could pass muster. The mint became famous for the quality of its workmanship. It made large quantities of coins for the French Kevolutionary Government, and from almost every other part of the moneyspending world orders came. Before a rise in the price of copper rendered it impracticable to continue the scheme, it was part of Boulton's plans to make each coin not only a means of barter, but also a weight and a measure. The idea illustrates the man's capacity for detail. It too k practical shape in the coinage of the famous Boulton pennies of 1797. Each of them was one ounce in weight, and seventeen measured two feet when placed in a line. When on August 17th, 1809, death was hastening to this grand old man of a byegone Birmingham, it was his to know that he had travelled a glorious road, that he had left a goodly record and a shining inspiration.