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.

  • James Watt
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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    at the same time, and unknown to each otlier ; tlie step, namely, of concluding from the experiment, that the two gases entered into combination, and that water was the result; for this, witli more or less of distinctness, is the inference which all three drew. lint there is the statement of Sir Charles lilao-den, to show that Mr. Lavoisier had heard of Mr. Caven- dish’s drawing this inference before his (Mr. Lavoi- sier’s) capital experiment was made;'“' and it appeal's that Mr. Lavoisier, after Sir C. Blagden’s statement had been embodied in Mr. Cavendish’s paper and made public, never gave any contradiction to it in any of his subsequent memoirs which are to be found in the Memoii-es de I’Academie, though his own ac- count of that experiment, and of wliat then passed, is inconsistent with Sir Charles Blagden’s statement.f But there is not any assertion at all, even from Sii- C. Blagden, zealous for Mr. Cavendish’s priority as he was, that Mr. Watt had ever heard of Mr. Caven- dish’s theory before he formed his own. Whether or not Mr. Cavendish had heard of Mr. Watt’s theory previous to drawing his conclusions, appears more doubtful. The supposition that he had * In the letter which Sir Charles Blagden addressed to Professor Crell, and which appeared in Creli’s Annalen for 1786, professing to give a detailed history of the discovery, he says expressly, that he had communicated to Lavoisier the conclusions both of Cavendish mid Watt. This last name appears in that letter for the first time in the recital of the verbal communications of the Secretary of the Royal Society, and is never mentioned by Lavoisier.—[Note bv Mr. James Watt.] t Could Blagden’s letter to Crell also have escaped Lavoisier’s notice ?—[Note by Mr. James Watt.]
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