CHAPTER VI REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM ATT'S permanent settlement in Birmingham WATT had for some time been seen to be inevitable, all his time being needed there. Domestic matters, including the care of his two children, with which he had hitherto been burdened, pressed hard upon him, and he had been greatly depressed by finding his old father quite in his dotage, although he was not more than seventy-five. Watt was alone and very unhappy during a visit he made to Greenock. Before returning to Birmingham, he married Miss MacGregor, daughter of a Glasgow man of affairs, who was the first in Britain to use chlorine for bleaching, the secret of which Berthollet, its inventor, had communicated to Watt. Pending the marriage, it was advisable that the partnership with Boulton as hitherto agreed upon should be executed. Watt writes so to Boulton, and the arrangement between the partners is indicated by the following passage of Watt's letter to him: As you may have possibly mislaid my missive to you concerning the contract, I beg just to mention what I remember of the terms. 1. I to assign to you two-thirds of the property of the invention. 2. You to pay all expenses of the Act or others incurred before June, 1775 (the date of the Act), and also the expense of future experiments, which money is to be sunk without interest by you, being the consideration you pay for your share. 3. You to advance stock-in-trade bearing interest, but having no claim on me for any part of that, further than my intromissions; the stock itself to be your security and property. 4. I to draw one-third of the profits so soon as any arise from the business, after paying the workmen's wages and goods furnished, but abstract from the stock-in-trade, excepting the interest thereof, which is to be deducted before a balance is struck. the 5. I to make drawings, give directions, and make surveys, company paying for the travelling expenses to either of us when upon engine business. 6. You to keep the books and balance them once a year. 7. A book to be kept wherein to be marked such transactions as are worthy of record, which, when signed by both, to have the force of the contract. 8. Neither of us to alienate our share of the other, and if either of us by death or otherwise shall be incapacitated from acting for ourselves, the other of us to be the sole manager without contradiction or interference of heirs, executors, assignees or others; but the books to be subject to their inspection, and the acting partner of us to be allowed a reasonable commission for extra trouble. 9. The contract to continue in force for twenty-five years, from the 1st of June, 1775, when the partnership commenced, notwithstanding the contract being of later date. 10. Our heirs, executors and assignees bound to observance. 11. In case of demise of both parties, our heirs, etc., to succeed in same manner, and if they all please, they may burn the contract. If anything be very disagreeable in these terms, you will find me disposed to do everything reasonable for your satisfaction. Boulton's reply was entirely satisfactory, and upon this basis the arrangement was closed. Watt, with his usual want of confidence in himself in business affairs, was anxious that Boulton should |