| Description | Letters and papers relating to Jacques Constantin Perier’s purchase of engines for supplying Paris with water, from 1777 to 1786. Perier was awarded an exclusive privilege or “Arrêt” in 1777 for supplying Paris with water from the Seine. He formed a company, Perier Frères et Compagnie, to exploit this privilege, and he came to England to buy an atmospheric engine. John Wilkinson told him about Watt’s engines, and Perier resolved to use them. Shipping was arranged by the London merchant house of John Motteux & Co. Perier agreed with Boulton & Watt that they would licence to Perier Frères et Cie. as many 63 inch engines “as shall be necessary for the purpose of raising water for the supply of the said City of Paris but for no other use or purpose whatsoever” in return for a payment of 24,000 livres or 20 shares in the company. One engine was built, and the correspondence makes it clear that a second engine was intended. On 27 Feb. 1780 Watt wrote to John Wilkinson “We never had any orders for Mr. Perier’s second engine but I have got the nozzles in hand and shall get it ready with all speed” [in 3/81, Boulton & Watt Letter Book 1778-80.] However only one engine is referred to in the List of Engines made at Soho.
In the meantime Boulton & Watt were granted their own Arrêt for the exclusive sale of engines in France. The Arrêt had been granted in April 1778 while Boulton and Watt were in negotiation with the Comte d’Heronville, through Jean Hyacinthe de Magellan, for a drainage engine for the Dunkirk area. The Arrêt specified that a trial had to be made of the engine, but the Dunkirk engine was never built. Joseph Jary obtained a further decree saying that the trial could be made on the engine he ordered for coal mines near Nantes, and this became the first Boulton & Watt engine in France.
The terms of Boulton & Watt’s Arrêt were broken by Perier, who set up his own manufactory. Moreover Perier failed to pay Boulton & Watt, and they took action through various contacts in France to secure payment. When Boulton and Watt visited Paris in 1786, they petitioned the King to confirm their Arrêt, but they did not propose to take action against Perier.
See also 3/379/43-59, General Correspondence 1775—1785, M, for correspondence from J. Motteux & Co. about shipping, Perier’s debt, and his purchase of various copying machines. See 3/510 for papers relating to the “Machine of Marly” and Boulton & Watt’s Arrêt, and see Portfolio 5/1070 for drawings of the engine. |