London Office Survey of Steam Power in the North East

MS 3147/15

London Office Survey of Steam Power in the North East

1835

As noted above, the forms are printed and record the engines’ details in the following format:
Horses Power: Condensing and High-pressure
How employed
Maker’s Name

The details of the engines’ owner are recorded at the top of the form. A few of the forms have letters written on them. The survey evidently aimed to be as comprehensive as possible, as the bundle of mill and brewery returns contains a list of various engines not included in the returns (which also includes some collieries), and the bundle of boat returns contains two lists of boats for which no return was received, with the makers of their engines.

The returns are arranged in three bundles: returns from mills, breweries, iron works and other factories; returns from collieries; and returns from steam boats. Each bundle is arranged alphabetically.

More detailed information on each series is given in the Description field, while reference numbers and covering dates of the actual records, and a list of the old reference numbers will be found in the pdf of the full series list attached. Item level lists are available in the searchroom of Birmingham Archives and Heritage.

1 Box

There are no restrictions on access to or use of the Boulton & Watt London Office Survey of Steam Power records. However fragile items or those in a poor state of repair may not be served at the discretion of the Duty Archivist.

In November 1834 James Watt Jr. requested the firm?s London agent, James Brown, to send him a ?statement of the engines in London, land and boat.? (James Watt Jr. to James Brown, 3 Nov. 1834 [MS 3147/12/39/351]). This appears to have marked the beginning of an intended survey of steam power across the whole of Britain. Brown duly sent a list, which Watt Jr. worked on at Soho, and on 20 Nov. 1834 Watt Jr. asked Brown to obtain lists of engines in the Durham and Newcastle areas. (James Watt Jr. to James Brown, 10, 13 and 20 Nov. 1834: MS 3147/12/39/352-354).

In January 1835 William Hawks Senior & Co. of Gateshead, who had bought Boulton & Watt engines in the past and from whom Boulton Watt & Co. occasionally ordered parts, offered to carry out the survey by sending printed circular forms for completion by mills, iron works, collieries, steam shipping companies and other concerns employing steam power. (William Hawks Sr. & Co. to Boulton Watt & Co., 29 Jan. 1835: MS 3147/12/40/240). The forms recorded the engine?s horse power, whether it was condensing or high pressure, what is was used for and who made it. Watt Jr. was initially reluctant for the survey to be carried out in this manner, but agreed to it in February 1835 (James Watt Jr. to James Brown, 11 and 16 Feb. 1835 [MS 3147/12/40/289-290]). The survey was completed in April, when Hawks & Co. sent the circulars to the London office. (William Hawks Sr. & Co. to Boulton Watt & Co., 18 and 20 Apr. 1835: MS 3147/12/40/241-242).

James Watt Jr. then seems to have lost the impetus to continue the survey, if indeed it was ever intended to be a complete survey of all of Britain in the first place. The only other list that James Brown obtained was one of engines in the Arbroath area, which was sent to him by Captain John Jamieson. (Capt. John Jamieson to James Brown, 15 Jan. 1835: MS 3147/12/40/250). This list and the returns from the North East survey remained in the London office. Unfortunately Brown?s first list, of engines in London, is now missing.(For more information on the people and businesses mentioned in this Introduction, see The Guide to Persons & Firms in the Archives Searchroom).