| Description | Letters from Aimé Argand from 1785 to 1787, and letters and papers concering his hydraulic ram, from 1797 to 1799. Aimé Argand (1755—1803) was a Swiss physician. His first connection with Soho was over his lamp, which he patented in 1784 and which Matthew Boulton manufactured at Soho, although the patent was later declared invalid. In 1797 Argand and Montgolfier invented a “belier hydraulique”, a hydraulic ram for raising water from the sea or rivers. Argand offered the invention to Boulton & Watt, and they took out a patent for it. A few rams were manufactured at Soho, most notably for the town of Falmouth on Jamaica (see 3/494, drawings in Portfolio 5/1109), while Matthew Boulton installed one in the grounds of Soho House in 1798 (drawings in Portfolio 5/1441).
The letters and papers in this bundle relate to the invention of the ram and the subsequent patent. However the bundle also contains letters from Argand dating from before the ram’s invention. These letters discuss his lamp and other business matters, and may have been added to the bundle from the series of Incoming Correspondence. |