| Description | (Directed, on the paper below, to Johann Christian Wiegleb's. The letter may be incomplete.)
My dear Son,
It is now upwards of a fortnight since I wrote to you (viz. 26th October), from which time I have not heard from you.
I have, agreeable to yur request, sent this day from hence a box containing sundry ores and fossills, a catologue of which you will receive herewith. Mr. Matthews is directed to ship it immediately for Mr. G. H. Büsch of Hamburg, who is requested to forward it by land to you at Langensaltza with all expedition. Don't let any body be present when you open it, except Mr. Wigleb, whom I beg you will compliment with the choice of every thing he wishes, and, for the remainder, you may exchange for any foreign specimens. I stand most in want of good specimens of nickal and cobalt, and if you could procure for me a cristal with a drop of water loosly in it I should be thankful; also a specimen of tungstein or of the oculus mondi, or any thing else which Cornwall and Derbyshire doth not produce.
I have sent you a bit of terra ponderosa airata, for an account of which I refer you to Dr. Withering's annalisis, published in the Philosophical Transaction of our Royal Society publish'd about five or six years ago. That stone is now found to be a cure for cancerous and all scrofulous disorders, by takeing about ten drops of saturated sollution of it in marine acid once or twice a day; this use of it was discover'd by Dr. Crawford of London , who lately published a book on Heat and Fire.
As Trevascus mine in Cornwall is shut up for ever, and as that was the only mine in Cornwall that produced the stalictitical chalcedonis, the specimens, though small, are become valuable. If you or Mr. Wiglib want any particular thing which this country produces, pray let me know and I will procure it.
Pray let me know if Mr. Wiglib can read English, and, if he cannot, I beg you will endeavour to make him understand Mr. Keir's Preface to his Dictionary, which I think is well wrote, and if you can translate it, and its spirit, I shall conclude you understand well the German language.
I have sent you the Reverend Mr. Bennet's book on Electricity, in which you will see your own name amongst the list of subscribers. I have also sent you a thermometer, as it's usefull to an observing traviler; it is Farenheit's scale: the freezing point is 32 and the boileing 212, hence
212
32
180
degrees difference between freesing and boiling; whereas in Reamure's thermometer the freesing point is 0 or zero, and the boiling 80 degrees; hence the space between freesing and boiling in Farenheit's is divided into 180 degrees, and that of Remuer's into 80 degrees; consequently, one degree of Remure's is exactly equal to 2¼ of Farenheit's and upon his scale:
Mercury boils at 600
Lead melts 600
Oyl boils 600
Water boils at 212
Spanish wine about 176
Bath waters from 116
to 96
Heat of human blood 96
Buxton bath 82
Bristol hot well 75
Matlock bath 68
Temperate degree in Eng-
land of deep wells 48
Cold in England 26
Very cold 20
Extreamly cold 8
I never saw it at 0
but it is said to have
been as low in England,
In Siberia said to be 120 below zero.
I have also sent you two dozen of my new half pence, which you may make serve for 24 presents to the collectors of coins and medals, as they will serve as specimens of the finest copper coin that ever was made in any age or country. I have also sent with them a paper that I drew up to accompany such as I gave to our king, ministers, senators, and friends, explaining the reason of my makeing the coin and the principles on which I propose to put an end to the counterfeiting of copper coin, there being four times the number of counterfeit half pence in this country circulating to what there is of legal half pence, and the evil is daily growing.
As it is a desireable thing to put a stop to the counterfeiting of coin in all the commercial countries in the world, I propose to offer my services to many of the kings and governments in Europe to make for them such copper coin as nobody will be induced to copy; and if they choose to adopt my invention to coin their gold and silver coin in their own mints, I am ready to furnish them with my new invented apparatus upon fair terms, by which they may conduct the business of their respective mints upon less than half their present expence and make far superior coin, for I can make more than one hundred million of such half pence or guineas per year with a few little boys, whereas the officers of the English Mint or Hotel de Monney are very much hurryed to make 3½ million of guineas per year. As soon as our Parliament meets, I expect to receive orders for 1500 ton of my new copper half pence, for which I have prepared superior dies to those which struck the specimens I sent you.
You may mention my plans to any body you please, and may give them leave to copy the paper I have wrote upon my coin, which is in the box. My metal is roll'd, is cut out, and coin'd, and the whole operations done by a new fire engine, and hath the following advantages over working presses by hand:
Advantages of M. B. coining machine.
1st. The force of each blow is exactly ascertain'd, and is allways the same.
2. Thereby the dies are better preserv'd.
3. Can instantly stop with the power of a child, and instantly go again.
4. Can work faster than men can do.
5. Can increase or deminish the blow at pleasure in any proportion.
6. Can lay the pieces perfectly true on the die.
7. Can work night and day without fateague.
8. The machine keeps an unalterable account of the number of pieces struck.
9. Strikes an inscription on the edge at the same blow it strikes the faces.
10. Strikes the ground of a bright polish.
11. All are perfectly round, all the work is truely concentrick with the edge, and all
exactly of the same diameter; and these are properties which no other money is
possessed of.
Can strike 100 million of half pence, or even petit ecus, per year with my present coining mill.
I recommend it to you to save this letter, because it contains many facts that you may want to refer to, as it is not impossible but you may have an introduction at some of the German courts before you leave Germany.
The weather now begins to be very cold here, and I suppose will be more so at Langensaltza; I therefore recommend it to you to buy two or three flannel wastcoats and ware one dureing the extream part of the winter. Cold as it is, Lawson and Zack Walker go into Hockley Pool every morning to harden themselves; yet, nevertheless, they wear flannell next their skins.
If you have any time for amusements, for Godsake don't employ it at cards or any paltry game, but I think it an agreeable amusement and an elegant accomplishment to dance with ease and grace, particularly minuets, as I have some times known elegant dancing introduce a young man to fifty or a hundred thousand pounds and a good wife, for though I would not have you sacrifice your happines for money, yet, nevertheless, there are as many good wives to be found with good fortunes as without them-at least, a good fortune cannot be consider'd as an alloy to a good wife, nor an objection; but when ever you marry, I advise that you marry an English lady, that your manners, customs, language, and religeon may accord. However, it's time enough to talk of these things a few years hence.
Mr. Striber is at Soho and hath taken up his bed here. I think it a misfortune to him that his father did not give him early habits to business, as I fear he is not inclinable to settle to any at present; but, nevertheless, I have hopes he will, as he hath an honest good disposition.
[Edited transcript.]
Copy of a paper on coinage by Matthew Boulton.
(Transcript in an unidentified hand.)
The public has sustained great loss by the illegal practice of counterfeiting half pence, which has been lately carried to a greater height than was ever before known, and seems still to increase, insomuch that it is now too common a custom among many of the lower class of manufacturers and traders to purchase these counterfeit half pence at little more than half their nominal value, and to pay with this money their workmen and labourers, greatly to the injury of the honest part of the community, and to the detriment of trade.
Some individuals whose business leads them to receive much in half pence have suffered to the amount of several hundred pounds.
The scarcity of legal copper coin, and the facility of counterfeiting the present half pence, have hitherto rendered all means of suppressing this illegal and injurious practice ineffectual.
Some persons have been induced by the scarcity of good legal coin to make and issue, for the convenience of themselves and neighbourhood, large quantities of copper pieces, of the value of pence and half pence, not counterfeiting the coin of the kingdom, but stamped with their own devices. These pieces also have been counterfeited without any penalty being incurred, and by these means the country is filled with a large quantity of base coins.
The counterfeiting of copper coin, now so frequently practiced, cannot fail of tending to similar attempts on the gold and silver coin of the kingdom; and when is it considered what numbers are executed for this crime, and also how much those secret associations entered into for the purpose of committing capital crimes harden and prepare men for every vice, it must be acknowledged that the prevention of these evils is an object equally interesting to humanity, justice, and policy.
The Honourable East India Company having employed Mr. Boulton about three years ago to manufacture copper coin for their settlements in India, he was thereby led to consider how the legal coin of this kingdom could be improved, and the counterfeit coin suppressed. The result of those considerations he had the honour to lay before the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council especially appointed to inquire into the state of the coins of the Realm, who ordered him to prepare specimens of coin upon his improved plan.
In consequence thereof he hath executed and perfected, at a very great expence, such an apparatus of machinery as he is persuaded will enable him to make coin, not only superior in beauty and workmanship to that of any nation in Europe, but also so manufactured (in consequence of the peculiar construction of his machinery) that the counterfeiting will be effectually prevented.
The securities proposed by Mr. Boulton against counterfeiting the copper coin are;
1st. To take away the temptation arising from great profits, by making the intrinsic value of all money equal to its nominal value, deducting the expence of coining.
2d. The expence of coinage should be the least possible, that the money may contain the greatest intrinsic value.
3. The workmanship and sculpture should not only be the best possible, so as not to be imitated by common artists, but also the coin should possess certain manifest peculiarities in its formation which cannot be obtained by the presses and machines hitherto used for coining, nor by any but such as are contrived and appropriated to these purposes, and which are too expensive, and require too large an apparatus, and too much mechanical knowledge in the construction, to be executed either with secrecy, or by the abilities of such persons as employ themselves in counterfeiting coin.
Mr. Boulton flatters himself that his apparatus and his coin possess the above mentioned requisites for the prevention of counterfeiting. For his machinery, altho' originally very expensive, can manufacture fine coin cheaper than the worst that is now made, and consequently no temptation will be left for counterfeiting but by diminishing the size and by debasing the metal. But, besides that these alterations will be pretty obvious, the peculiarities on which the difference depends between his coin and the counterfeits are:
1st. His coins are perfectly round.
2d. They are all precisely equal in diameter.
3d. The work is exactly concentric to the edge.
4th. An inscription or ornament is put round the edge, either indented or in relief, or partly one and partly the other, and this inscription is to be struck by the same blow that gives impression to the faces, whereas the common mode of making ornaments on the edge is by a separate well known operation called milling, and which is much more easily imitated.
5th. The ground of his coin is smooth, and of a bright polish.
6th, and lastly. Much greater quantities of money with all [these] perfections may be coined in less time, with [fewer] persons, and with more exactness and ease [to those] employed, than by any mode hitherto inve[nted].
The above six properties of coin are peculiar to [Mr. Boulton's,] having never been attained in any mint in Euro[pe, nor] beng attainable by any coining machine but his.
How far he has succeeded in these views may be judged of in some degree by the specimens inclosed, which are, however, considerably inferior in execution to the dies actually intended for coin, which he did not think proper to use, even for specimens, until he had received the sanction of Government.
The inclosed pieces are struck from dies engraved by a first rate artist, sixteen months ago, who had never seen his Majesty, but who is now preparing a more perfect likeness, as well as superior engraving.
[Edited transcript.] |