Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton was an English businessman, inventor, and engineer who lived from 1728 to 1809. He was born in Birmingham and became famous for his work with James Watt. Together, they created and installed many steam engines that helped change factories and mills by making them work faster and better.

Boulton was also known for making coins. He used new methods to create millions of coins for Britain and other countries. His coins were well made and hard to copy. One of his special coins was called the "cartwheel" penny, and it was used in Britain for many years.

Boulton was part of a group called the Lunar Society, which included other important inventors and thinkers. They met often and shared ideas that helped start the Industrial Revolution. Boulton retired in 1800 but kept working on his mint until he died in 1809. Today, his picture appears on a British banknote along with James Watt.

Background

Birmingham was an important place for making iron. In the early 1700s, it became easier and cheaper to work with iron because people started using coke instead of charcoal. This change happened because there was less wood and lots of coal in nearby Warwickshire and Staffordshire. Iron was made in small factories near Birmingham, especially in the Black Country, including towns like Smethwick and West Bromwich. The thin sheets of iron were moved to factories around Birmingham to make small, valuable items like buttons and buckles.

Matthew Boulton came from a family near Lichfield. His father, also named Matthew, moved to Birmingham and worked making buckles. Matthew Boulton was born in 1728, and he was the third child in his family.

Early and family life

Matthew Boulton grew up in a successful family. When he was young, his family moved to a nice area of Birmingham called Snow Hill. Since the local school wasn't good, he went to a school in Deritend, on the other side of Birmingham. At just 15 years old, he left school and by 17, he had created a special way to put decorations on buckles. These buckles became very popular and were even sent to France before being brought back to Britain.

When Matthew was 21, he married Mary Robinson, who came from a wealthy family. Sadly, their three daughters passed away when they were very young, and Mary also passed away not long after. After her death, Matthew married her sister Anne, even though it was not allowed by church rules at the time. They had two children together. One of their descendants, Matthew's grandson, became known for inventing an important part for airplane controls called the aileron.

Innovator

Expansion of the business

After his father passed away in 1759, Matthew Boulton took control of the family business that made toys. He spent a lot of time in London showing off his products. He even arranged for a friend to give a sword to Prince Edward, which caught the attention of the Prince’s older brother, George, Prince of Wales, who later became King George III. The Prince decided to buy one for himself.

With money from his marriages and inheritance, Boulton looked for a bigger place to grow his business. In 1761, he rented 13 acres of land in Soho, which was then part of Staffordshire. There, he built a residence called Soho House and a rolling mill. Soho House was first used by Boulton’s relatives and then by his business partner, John Fothergill. In 1766, Boulton asked Fothergill to leave Soho House so he could live there with his family. Sadly, both Boulton’s wife and he passed away there—his wife Anne in 1783 and he himself in 1809.

On the 13 acres of land, Boulton enclosed common land that people had used for free. By 1765, he had built the Soho Manufactory, a big warehouse with a special front design and space for loading and unloading goods. It also had rooms for workers. The building was designed by a local architect named William Wyatt. Boulton and Fothergill invested in the best equipment for working with metal, and their factory was seen as a marvel of modern industry. Building the main part of the factory cost a lot of money—five times more than they first thought. They spent over £20,000 to build and equip the factory, which they managed to do by borrowing money and carefully managing their debts.

Boulton made many different products in his new factory, including silver plates for wealthy customers and a special kind of silver sheet fused with copper for less wealthy people. He and his father had made small silver items before, but now they started making bigger pieces. To make items like candlesticks cheaper than competitors in London, they used thin, stamped metal pieces that were shaped and joined together. By the late 1700s, they also began making shoe buckles and seals, helping Birmingham become a center for silver and metal goods.

One problem Boulton faced was that there was no office in Birmingham to test and mark silver items. He wanted to get permission to have such an office in Birmingham so he wouldn’t have to send his items far away to be tested. He successfully asked the government to pass a law allowing assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield. However, making silver items wasn’t very profitable, so Boulton focused more on making Sheffield plate, which he mostly handed over to trusted workers to manage.

Boulton also started selling vases decorated with a special kind of gold called ormolu, which was popular with wealthy people at the time. He worked with a friend, Josiah Wedgwood, to make these vases, but they later switched to using marble and other stones because ceramic couldn’t hold the decorations well. Boulton copied designs from ancient Greek art and borrowed artwork from collectors and sculptors.

Partnership with Watt

Matthew Boulton’s factory in Soho didn’t have enough power from water, especially in the summer when the water flow was low. He thought using a steam engine could solve this problem. He started talking to James Watt about this in 1766 and met him in person two years later. In 1769, Watt invented a more efficient steam engine with a separate part called a condenser. Boulton saw that this engine could not only power his factory but also be a good business opportunity.

After Watt invented the engine, he didn’t do much to make it ready for sale, so he focused on other projects. In 1772, Watt’s business partner, Dr. John Roebuck, got into financial trouble, and Boulton lent him money. In return, Boulton took a share of Watt’s invention. Boulton convinced Watt to move to Birmingham, and they started a partnership in 1775. Thanks to Boulton’s efforts, the government extended Watt’s patent until 1800. Together, they improved the engine and made it work well for factories and mines.

In 1776, they installed two engines—one for a businessman named John Wilkinson and another at a mine in Tipton. These engines worked well and brought positive attention to their partnership. Boulton and Watt didn’t build the engines themselves; instead, they had customers buy parts from different suppliers and then put the engine together at the customer’s location. They charged customers a percentage of the money they saved by using their engines instead of older, less efficient ones. This caused some disagreements because some mine owners used cheaper coal and didn’t want to keep paying for the engines.

Cornwall was an important place for their business because it had many mines. However, there were challenges there, like competition and expensive coal that had to be brought in from Wales. Boulton and Watt spent time in Cornwall helping with installations and solving problems. In 1779, they hired an engineer named William Murdoch to handle most of the installation issues, so Boulton and Watt could stay in Birmingham.

In the early 1780s, they changed Watt’s engine so it could move in a circle, which made it useful for factories and mills. This was important because water power wasn’t always available, especially in dry summers. They began getting orders from mills and breweries. One famous example was at the Whitbread brewery in London, where King George III visited and liked the engine. Boulton even used two engines to grind wheat in London, which helped show off their new invention.

Between 1775 and 1800, they made around 450 engines. Although they didn’t allow others to make engines with the same efficient design, about 1,000 older, less efficient engines were still made in Britain during that time. Boulton once told a famous writer, James Boswell, “I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have—POWER.” The development of efficient steam engines helped create large factories and cities like Manchester.

Involvement with coinage

By 1786, many coins in Britain were fake, and the Royal Mint stopped making new coins, making the problem worse. Even copper coins were being melted down and replaced with fake ones. The Royal Mint didn’t make copper coins for almost 50 years. To fill this gap, merchants started making their own copper tokens.

Boulton got interested in making coins because it was similar to the small metal products he already made. He had a lot of copper from his mines and wanted to use it. However, he refused to make fake money and said he would only try to stop counterfeiters. In 1788, he opened the Soho Mint as part of his factory. It had eight machines powered by steam that could make between 70 and 84 coins every minute. Although he couldn’t get permission right away to make British coins, his factory soon began making coins for other places, like the British East India Company, Sierra Leone, and Russia.

The problem with fake coins kept getting worse. In 1797, the Bank of England stopped exchanging its bills for gold, and the government decided to make a lot of new copper coins. They asked Boulton to make them. He agreed and began making coins in 1797. These coins had special designs to make them harder to copy, like raised edges with tiny letters and numbers. They were nicknamed “cartwheels” because of their large size. Although these coins solved some problems, they were soon copied too. Boulton kept improving his coins to make them harder to fake, and eventually, counterfeiters gave up and focused on easier targets.

Activities and views

Scientific studies and the Lunar Society

Main article: Lunar Society

Matthew Boulton was not formally educated in science, but he learned a lot through his own curiosity and practical work. He had many correct ideas about nature and science, including electricity and astronomy. As a young man, he met famous scientists and worked with them on interesting experiments.

Boulton was part of a group of scientists and inventors called the Lunar Society. They met regularly to share ideas and experiments. This group included important figures like James Watt and Josiah Wedgwood. Their meetings helped advance science and technology during a time of great change.

Community work

Boulton was very active in his community. He helped start a hospital in Birmingham by organizing a music festival to raise money. He also supported a place where people could get medical help when they needed it.

He helped create a theatre in Birmingham and supported local music groups. Boulton was concerned about safety in the town and helped organize volunteers to keep the streets safe at night. He also supported the local military and took part in important local government roles.

Family and later life, death, and memorials

When Matthew Boulton’s wife passed away in 1783, he was left to care for his two teenagers. His son, Matthew Robinson Boulton, and daughter, Anne, both faced health challenges. Despite spending much time away for business, Boulton always cared deeply for his family.

In 1800, Boulton and his partner, James Watt, retired and passed their roles to their sons. Even in retirement, Boulton stayed busy, working on creating new coins. He helped solve a problem with silver coins and kept working until he became too ill. Boulton passed away in 1809 after suffering from painful kidney stones. He was buried in Birmingham, and a large memorial was placed in a local church in his honor.

Birmingham remembers Boulton in many ways. His home, Soho House, is now a museum, and so is his first workshop. Statues, special plates, and even a college are named after him. In 2009, to mark the 200th anniversary of his death, many events celebrated his life and work. A new banknote even featured both Boulton and Watt.