| Description | Letters from Richard Arkwright from 1777, 1785 and 1790. All the letters concern the engine that Boulton & Watt supplied for Arkwright’s Nottingham mill except the first two. The first of these earlier letters is an enquiry about the steam engine made not long after Boulton & Watt had gone into business together. Most of the letters are written on Arkwright’s behalf by his clerks.
This bundle is an artificial one. The letters were almost certainly removed from the various series of general incoming correspondence. The two early letters were placed on display in cases in the Watt Room at George Tangye’s Cornwall Works, and they were probably on display in the Watt Room at Soho Foundry before that. It was decided to bring the scattered letters together into one bundle. |