that it was not one invention, but many,
that his task involved. Smiles gives the following epitome of some of
those pressing at this stage:

Various trials of pipe-condensers, plate-condensers and
drum-condensers, steam-jackets to prevent waste of heat, many
trials of new methods to tighten the piston band, condenser
pumps, oil pumps, gauge pumps, exhausting cylinders,
loading-valves, double cylinders, beams and cranks--all these
contrivances and others had to be thought out and tested
elaborately amidst many failures and disappointments.

There were many others.

All unaided, this supreme toiler thus slowly and painfully evolved the
steam engine after long years of constant labor and anxiety, bringing to
the task a union of qualities and of powers of head and hand which no
other man of his time--may we not venture to say of all time--was ever
known to possess or ever exhibited.

When a noble lord confessed to him admiration for his noble
achievements, Watt replied, "The public only look at my success and not
at the intermediate failures and uncouth constructions which have served
me as so many steps to climb to the top of the ladder."

Quite true, but also quite right. The public have no time to linger over
a man's mistakes. What concerns is his triumphs. We "rise upon our dead
selves (failures) to higher things," and mistakes, recognised as such
in after days, make for victory. The man who never makes mistakes never
makes anything. The only point the wise man guards is not to make the
same mistake twice; the first time never counts with the successful man.
He both forgives and forgets that. One difference between the wise man
and the foolish one!

It has been truly said that Watt seemed to have divined all the
possibilities of steam. We have a notable instance of this in a letter
of this period (March, 1769) to his friend, Professor Small, in which he
anticipated Trevithick's use of high-pressure steam in the locomotive.
Watt said:

I intend in many cases to employ the expansive force of steam to
press on the piston, or whatever is used instead of one, in the
same manner as the weight of the atmosphere is now employed in
common fire engines. In some cases I intend to use both the
condenser and this force of steam, so that the powers of these
engines will as much exceed those pressed only by the air, as
the expansive power of the steam is greater than th