Description:

James Watt ALS Re: "Forth & Clyde navigation" and "canal management"

A 1p autograph letter boldly signed by Scottish inventor James Watt (1736-1819) as "James Watt" at center right. December 29, [1818]. N.p. but probably Watt's home at Heathfield Hall, Handsworth, in present day Birmingham, England, where he died less than a year later in August 1819. On bifold paper with remnants of an embossed black wax seal located on the integral address leaf also engrossed by Watt. The inner pages are blank. Docketed by the recipient on the integral address leaf. Expected wear including flattened paper folds and isolated minor closed tears along the folds. A small area of loss in an upper corner corresponding to the wax seal. An isolated pencil inscription along the top margin of the first page. Else near fine. 4.875" x 7.875." Accompanied by a handsome engraving of James Watt after John Partridge and Sir William Beechey; scattered foxing mostly affecting the plate margins, else very good, 7.375" x 9.875."

James Watt extended this dinner invitation to Samuel Tertius Galton (1783-1844), a British businessman and economist. Watt hoped that Galton could attend to discuss "canal management" with Watt's other guest, "Mr. Grahame," referring to Thomas Grahame, a council member of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company.

In full, with unchanged spelling and punctuation:

"My Dear Sir

Will you do me the favour to dine with Mr Grahame one of the council of the forth & Clyde navigation at my house to morrow, He wants some information about canal management

Yours sincerely

James Watt

Tuesday Decr 29th."

82-year-old Scottish mechanical engineer James Watt had continued tinkering even after officially retiring in 1800, some 20 years after he had developed his most enduring innovation, the 1776 Watt steam engine. One of Watt's later projects involved developing a "flexible water main," powered by Watt steam engines, to pump water from the River Clyde into filtering areas on the riverbanks: a form of primitive water treatment.

The Forth and Clyde Canal Company, designed by prolific British civil engineer James Smeaton, was constructed between 1768-1790. It provided a direct route between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, connecting the east and west coasts between hubs Edinburgh and Glasgow. Thomas Grahame was a council member of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, and dedicated himself to the firm's modernization, becoming one of its most ardent advocates of steamboat traffic on the canal. Though steamboat trials had taken place on the Forth and Clyde Canal as early as the 1780s, such traffic was considered problematic because of the presence of slower vessels-- propelled by sail, rowing, or horses--on the busy waterway. Less than a decade later, in July 1828, Grahame conducted an experiment on the Forth and Clyde Canal using a paddle steamer named "Cupid." The steamer safely towed boats up the canal, providing a cheaper and faster alternative to traditional means. In the 1830s, Grahame would return to the Forth and Clyde Canal to experiment with swift, horse-drawn passenger vessels.

Watt's correspondent, Samuel Tertius Galton, was the son of Samuel "John" Galton, a well-known British scientist and a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a group of local intellectuals and the scientific-minded. Samuel Tertius married a Darwin (a relative of celebrated British naturalist Charles Darwin), and their son Sir Francis Galton pioneered the study of eugenics and heredity.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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