Undercover - Steam Power - Book 5

Part 3 - James Watt

We quickly decided to help and as we followed Jonathan Smith he explained that he had been driving his carriage to Lostwithiel when he stopped to ask directions from a young man on horseback. The rider had directed him to a side road that put the carriage in a very muddy spot, where a stream crossed the road, and it was now stuck.

The open carriage was on the other side of the trees and it contained two well-dressed, middle aged passengers who Jonathan introduced as Mr and Mrs Watt. Denny introduced us and we all collected branches from dead trees and placed them in crossways front of the wheels forming a crude roadway. 

 Mr Watt got down and with the horses pulling and the rest of us pushing we got the carriage moving. We soon we reached dry ground by which time, we all needed a rest. The lady was wearing a bonnet and a long flowing dress which she had to lift up as she got down from the carriage. She spoke to the coachman who unstrapped a large basket from the carriage and carried it to a grassy area.  He released the two horses from the carriage and led them to the stream where they drank thirstily. Dunc watched from the shade of the trees pretending to be an innocent wild goose as he chewed at a patch of new grass.

 The gentleman re-introduced himself, in a Scottish accent, as, 'James Watt formerly of Glasgow but lately residing in Birmingham.' The lady was his wife, Mrs Ann Watt, and she invited us to a picnic.

Denny was so surprised he seemed incapable of speech so I had to re-introduced ourselves.

 'I'm verra pleased to meet you,' Mr Watt said. 'Ye dinna speak like anyone who lives in Britain. So I strongly suspect you are from America. Am I correct?' 

 'We are from Ottawa, Canada,' I said without thinking. 'But, Denny comes from Britain.'

'He means Bytown,' Licia explained. 'It's north-west of Montreal.'

'Ottawa wasn't invented in 1778,' she hissed at me. 

 'It wasn't even Bytown,' Miguel chuckled. 'Colonel John By didn't start building the Rideau canal until . . . much later.'

'You must be a proud father Mr Vernier. You have such fine lads. Alfie looks like my own son.'

 Denny turned even redder so Licia quickly said, 'Denny is not our father,' and Miguel added, 'He's our uncle.'

By the time we had corrected Mr Watt's misperception, Denny had recovered his ability to speak. 'I am deeply honoured to meet you, sir, and madam. I have admired your work for many years and I have read every book about you but I never expected to . . . to . . . I really . . . '

'Every book?' Mr Watt asked in surprise. 'What books?'

'I mean . . .' Denny scratched his head in embarrassment.

'He means,' Licia interjected, 'that he was planning to write a book about your work.' 'Well,' Mr Watt said with a chuckle. 'That's verra flattering, but I hope he'll no gee away all ma secrets.'

 There was enough food for every one and we helped ourselves to delicious bread rolls, meat, cheese and bottles of small beer and cider as we described our journey from Plymouth. 

 'May I asked what is your business here in this benighted corner of England?' Mr Watt asked.

'We are on our way to the tin mines hoping to find work,' Denny said. 'But we were attacked by robbers. Fortunately, Licia . . . I mean Lee . . . chased them off.' 

 'Highwaymen?' Mr Watt said with alarm. 'Then I am in your debt for they were probably going to rob me. I was suspicious of that young horseman when he directed us into that marsh. There canna be many travellers on this awful road.' '

May I ask what is your work?' Mr Watt asked Denny.

'I am an engineer,' Denny said without thinking. 'Now that's a interesting wurrd. D'ye mean millwright, navigator, blacksmith, rigger, shipwright, carpenter, instrument maker? Yeh dinna ken fire engines, by chance?'

'Indeed, I do sir. I know all of those and many other things.'

I could see Denny was about to start talking about his work with Dr Zhang so I interrupted before he gave Mr Watt the impression he was a lunatic. 

 'What's a fire engine?'

'A fire engine, laddie?' Mr Watt asked. 'It's a machine to pump water. Thomas Newcomen built the first one for one of the northern coal mines nigh on 60 years ago and . . . '

'The first one was working in 1712,' Denny said.

'Aye, that would be right,' Mr Watt said. 'Now, there must be near a hundred of them. They're no verra efficient but coal is cheaper, and the pumps are faster, than horses winding up buckets.

 'But I thought you invented the steam engine, Mr Watt,' Miguel said.

'No, I canna tak credit for that. Ma invention is the external steam condenser. The Newcomen atmospheric engine uses a water spray inside the cylinder, so steam is condensed inside the cylinder which means the cylinder has to be reheated with each stroke. Ma separate steam condenser avoids the large loss of energy and saves a lot of coal. Many of these old engines have been fitted with ma steam condenser already.'