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Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton was an enlightened industrialist who saw that steam power would play an important part in industry. In 1762, he had established the Soho Manufactory in Birmingham, and it was here that James Watt was to develop his steam engine. The two men formed a partnership in 1775, and Boulton acquired a 25 year extension on Watt's patent. With Boulton's financial backing and the help of another inventor, William Murdock, James Watt produced
500 steam engines.
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In 1769, James Watt, a Scottish engineer, studied a model of Newcomen's engine in a Glasgow University laboratory. His studies led him to work out a way of making the engine more efficient. Watt realised that if the steam was condensed outside of the piston chamber, the chamber would be kept hot and much energy would be saved. He developed a separate structure called a condenser
which was kept permanently cold. All he needed then was a method to finance the construction of his steam engine. For this he turned to Matthew Boulton whom he had met in 1798. |
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