 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
BIRMINGHAM MEN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Matthew Boulton built the famous Soho Works for the production of metal wares. Boswell says of it: "I visited the great works of Mr. Boulton at a place which he has called Soho, about 2 miles from Birmingham, which the very ingenious proprietor showed me himself to the best advantage. I shall never forget Mr. Boulton’s expression to me: ‘I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have— power’. He had about 700 people at work. I contemplated him as an iron chieftain, and he seemed to be ‘a father to his tribe’. One of them came to him complaining grievously of his landlord having distrained his goods. ‘Your landlord is in the right, Smith’, said Boulton, ‘but I will tell you what: find you a friend who will lay down one-half of your rent and I’ll lay down the other half and you shall have your goods again’."
William Murdoch was another famous Soho workman, and, like Watt, a Scotsman by birth. He hoped because of this to be taken on by his fellow-countryman. At the time, however, Watt was away from Soho, and Murdoch was interviewed by the great Boulton himself, who always selected his workmen with the utmost care. He was not greatly impressed by the shy young stranger who twiddled nervously with his hat while talking to Boulton. The peculiar fabric of the said hat attracted  Boulton’s attention, and he asked Murdoch of what it was made.
"Timmer, Sir", replied the boy. "Timmer? Do you mean to say that it is made
from wood?" "Yes, Sir." "Pray how was it made?". "I turned
it mysel’, sir, in a bit lathey of my own making." Boulton looked keenly at the
tall good-looking stranger and, after a brief pause, told him to call again. So Murdoch
began as an ordinary mechanic. His inventive brain caused him to apply coal gas for
lighting his house, and it is for this invention that his name is chiefly remembered.
Murdoch died in 1839.
Sculpture of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch erected in 1956 infront of the Registery Office Broad Street
|
|
|
Virtual Brum is an unofficial
Birmingham UK website about the city which is also known as Brummagem or Brum. |
Until Boulton met James Watt his machinery was driven by
water power, but he devised mechanical contrivances to speed up production and save money.
At this time a large amount of false coinage was being manufactured in the Birmingham
district and was giving the town a nation-wide notoriety which Matthew Boulton determined
to try to counteract. He devoted his energies with such zeal to this end that some 800,000
coins were struck each week in the Soho factory, and the copper coinage of the country was
entirely reformed, for, with the abundant supply of good copper coins, the base ones could
be detected quite easily. Boulton associated himself with every phase of Birmingham’s
industrial life, and of him truly can it be said: "He will ever hold the loftiest
place among the industrial heroes of the world and the greatest men of Birmingham".
