| Description | 2 sheets. On the second sheet: Transcript of letter. Boulton Watt & Co. (Soho) to Josiah Spode. 6 Oct. 1803. Transcript of letter. Josiah Spode (Wolseley Bridge) to Boulton Watt & Co. 9 Oct. 1803. Account of the problems of Josiah Spode’s engine. Subsequent problems of connecting the engine to the mill. Further problems due to Spode’s managers trying to alter it. Suggestions for connecting the engine to the mill. Annexing copies of correspondence with Spode. William Heath, agent to Spode and Fenton Park Colliery, is an advocate of Richard Trevithick’s engines. He is probably trying to get Spode to buy a Trevithick engine and is therefore probably the cause of the problems with Spode’s engines. Trevithick’s piracy of the engine William Murdock made in Cornwall in 1785 or 1786. Extreme danger of using high pressure steam – the Greenwich explosion justifies Boulton Watt & Co.’s not employing it. Suggested improvements to Spode’s engine. |