Correspondence of the late James Watt on his discovery of the theory of the composition of water. With a letter from his son / Edited with introductory remarks and an appendix by James Patrick Muirhead.

  • Watt, James, 1736-1819.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Correspondence of the late James Watt on his discovery of the theory of the composition of water. With a letter from his son / Edited with introductory remarks and an appendix by James Patrick Muirhead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    inspect them. I, however, felt it a matter of delicacy to become a witness in a cause, where I must, as the representative of my father, be considered a party ; and I requested those two very competent and unex- ceptionable gentlemen, Mr. Charles Hatchett and Mr. W. T. Braude, the for*mer of whom had been a friend both of Mr. Cavendish and of my father, to under- take the examination, which they both promised to do. Mr. Hatchett reported to me that he had found nothing whatever to indicate the period when Mr. Cavendish’s conclusion was formed. Mr. Brande fur- ther carefully searched the books of the Royal So- ciet}^, and expressed his opinion that the records which he there found were “ satisfactory as to the “ priority of Mr. Watt’s claims ; in short, leave no- “ thing further to be said against them.” Lord Brougham also suggested an examination of the original papers preserved in the archives of the Royal Society, which he undertook himself: he tlien discovered the interpolations in the Memoir of Mr. Cavendisli, in the hand-writing of Sir C. IRagden, with which, from frequent correspondence with him, he was himself familiar ; and thus threw light on what was before unintelligible. At his Lordship’s request I afterwards accompanied him to Somerset House, and saw the documents confirming his state- ment. M. Arago’s Eloge is published in the Memoirs of the Institute, and in the Annuaire du Bureau des