| Description | In 1786 Boulton & Watt supplied an engine for draining the polder of Blydorp and Kool, near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The engine was ordered by Stephen Hoogendyk, but on account of his great age he passed the arrangements for the engine to the Directors of the Batavian Society of Experimental Philosophy and J. D. H. van Liender. The directors were awarded a special privilege to erect the engine, and they in turn made an agreement with Boulton & Watt about supplying the parts, drawings and guidance. This agreement covered the erection of engines in the States of Holland and West Friezeland for fifteen years, and was referred to as the "Dutch Patent."
Further details of the "Dutch Patent" can be found in the letters from J. D. H. van Liender. For drawings of the engine ordered by Hoogendyk, see Drawings of Pumping Engines, Portfolio MS 3147/5/559. |