Q.David Bowers
The Lunar Society of Birmingham formed another interest, and he was a contributor and founding member.
In 1759, upon his father's death, Matthew Boulton inherited the family business. At the time just a few hands were employed in the manufacture of buttons, buckles, and related pieces. To the evolved a grandiose plan to produce a large structure, which came to be known as the Soho Manufactory. Started in 1759, it was completed in 1766 under the direction of Samuel Wyatt. It was located on Hockley Brook, which was intended to supply power to drive the lathes and other manufacturing devices. The stream dried up, so the assistance of James Watt, manufacturer of steam engines, was enlisted to provide the motive power.
Old illustrations reveal that the factory was three floors high with a cupola at the center. To each side was a wing. To the rear were various buildings which presumably contained furnaces and smelting apparatus for heavier work. The main building probably contained most of the manufacturing area, although some of the upper rooms may have been occasionally used for residences by those associated with the endeavor. At one time 600 workmen were employed there.
From the Manufactory came forth a wonderful variety of silver and other implements, including candlesticks, cups, tureens, inkstands, pots, wine funnels, salt cellars, bread baskets, and other art goods.
James Watt, born in 1736, was working at Glasgow University in 1763 when he became intrigued with a model of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine, a device which had been sent from a classroom to be repaired. Watt studied the gadget and immediately conceived some improvements, one of which was a condenser which made it possible to produce a steam engine delivering the same amount of power but using only 1/3 to 1/4 as much fuel as was necessary earlier. In 1768 Watt spent two weeks at the Soho Manufactory as Boulton's guest. Boulton, who was in desperate need of power following the drying up of Hockley Brook, became interested in a business venture with Watt but could not agree on terms. Boulton wanted to have a majority interest, and Watt did not want this.
Finally, in 1773, a partnership was agreed upon. In 1776 a large steam engine embodying new principles was successfully demonstrated, after which orders were received for two installations, one to supply air to a fur-nace and the other to drain a coal mine. The business prospered, and soon Watt, who owned only a 1/3 interest in the partnership, became a wealthy man and the recipient of many honorary degrees and other distinctions. His finest honor came in 1814 with his election as one of eight foreign associates of the French Academy. He died in his mansion, Heathfield Hall, near Birmingham, in 1819.
The production of buttons, buckles, and small metal articles necessitated the use of dies stamping apparatus. It is believed that one of the earliest small metallic products was a perpetual calendar, produced by Thomas Powell, who later headed the Button Department.
In 1786 a rotating-type steam engine was installed, a great improvement over the old oscillating type, thus greatly facilitating the production of stamped pieces.
Jean-Pierre Droz, a Swiss of great talent, became involved with the Soho Mint, as the coining branch was known. As a child Droz was apprenticed to his father, maker of agricultural metal tools and implements. He showed a proficiency for art and drawing, and at the age of 18 years, in 1764, he went to Paris to study engraving. By 1780 he had achieved a reputation as an exceptional medallist and in that year produced a medal commemorating Louis XVI's alliance with Basle. In 1783 he gained fame by suggesting to the Paris Mint some improvements. He intended to stay in France, working on innovations in die reproduction and other areas, but the political situation forced him to leave. He went to Birmingham where he became associated with the Boulton enterprise. While at the Soho Mint he engraved and produced dies for many different British and foreign coins and medals, including a long series of pattern British copper coins in the 1790s.
Boulton and Watt had an interest in copper mines in Cornwall, and as a result of this they specialized in copper issues, including the huge "cartwheel" 1797 twopence piece and related issues, the "cartwheel" penny, halfpenny, and farthing. Other diesinkers employed by the Soho Mint included Konrad Heinrich Kuchler, who produced the dies for the 1796 Myddelton halfpenny token and the famous Season Medals of Washington's second presidential term; John Phelps, Rambert Dumaresta (a Frenchman), and a Mr. Ponthon. These and other artisans engraved dies for many pieces related to America, including tokens and medals relating to George Washington.
From 1788 to 1810, Boulton and Watt supplied steam-operated coining equipment to the Royal Mint in London. This type of motive power was not to come to the Philadelphia Mint in the United States until 1836.
In September 1789, Matthew Boulton described the advantages of his coining apparatus:
It will coin much faster, with greater ease, with fewer persons, for less expense, and produce more beautiful pieces than any other machinery ever used for coining. The quantity of power or force requisite for each blow is exactly regulated and ascertained and is always uniformly the same, for the same pieces, thereby the dies are better preserved.
One of my coining machines will work much faster by the attendance of one boy than others can do by any number of men.
Can stop these machines at an instant by the power of a child and the same child can as instantaneously set them to work again.
Can increase or diminish the force of the blow at pleasure, in any proportion.
Can lay the pieces or blanks upon the die quite true and without care or practice and as fast as wanted.
Can work day and night without fatigue by two sets of boys.
The machine keeps an account of the number of pieces struck which cannot be altered from the truth by any of the persons employed.
The apparatus strikes an inscription upon the edge with the same blow that it strikes the two faces.
It strikes the ground of the pieces brighter than any other coining press can do.
It strikes the pieces perfectly round, all of equal diameter, and exactly concentric with the edge, which cannot be done by any other machinery now in use.