Matthew Boulton was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith.
67 Facts About Matthew Boulton
2.
Matthew Boulton was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt.
3.
Matthew Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.
4.
Matthew Boulton became associated with James Watt when Watt's business partner, John Roebuck, was unable to pay a debt to Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's share of Watt's patent as settlement.
5.
Matthew Boulton was a key member of the Lunar Society, a group of Birmingham-area men prominent in the arts, sciences, and theology.
6.
Matthew Boulton founded the Soho Mint, to which he soon adapted steam power.
7.
Matthew Boulton sought to improve the poor state of Britain's coinage, and after several years of effort obtained a contract in 1797 to produce the first British copper coinage in a quarter century.
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Matthew Boulton retired in 1800, though continuing to run his mint, and died in 1809.
9.
Matthew Boulton was a descendant of families from around Lichfield, his great-great-great-great grandfather, Rev Zachary Babington, having been Chancellor of Lichfield.
10.
Boulton's father, named Matthew and born in 1700, moved to Birmingham from Lichfield to serve an apprenticeship, and in 1723 he married Christiana Piers.
11.
The elder Matthew Boulton was a toymaker with a small workshop specialising in buckles.
12.
Matthew Boulton was born in 1728, their third child and the second of that name, the first Matthew having died at the age of two in 1726.
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The elder Matthew Boulton retired in 1757 and died in 1759.
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Not long after her death Matthew Boulton began to woo her sister Anne.
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Matthew Boulton spent much of his time in London and elsewhere, promoting his wares.
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Matthew Boulton arranged for a friend to present a sword to Prince Edward, and the gift so interested the Prince's older brother, George, Prince of Wales, the future King George III, that he ordered one for himself.
17.
In 1766 Matthew Boulton required Fothergill to vacate Soho House, and lived there himself with his family.
18.
The 13 acres at Soho included common land that Matthew Boulton enclosed, later decrying what he saw as the "idle beggarly" condition of the people who had used it.
19.
One impediment to Matthew Boulton's work was the lack of an assay office in Birmingham.
20.
The firm continued to make large quantities of Sheffield plate, but Matthew Boulton delegated responsibility for this enterprise to trusted subordinates, involving himself little in it.
21.
Matthew Boulton initially ordered ceramic vases from his friend and fellow Lunar Society member Josiah Wedgwood, but ceramic proved unable to bear the weight of the decorations and Boulton chose marble and other decorative stone as the material for his vases.
22.
Matthew Boulton copied vase designs from classical Greek works and borrowed works of art from collectors, merchants, and sculptors.
23.
Matthew Boulton ran annual sales at Christie's in 1771 and 1772.
24.
Matthew Boulton realised that using a steam engine either to pump water back up to the millpond or to drive equipment directly would help to provide the necessary power.
25.
Matthew Boulton began to correspond with Watt in 1766, and first met him two years later.
26.
Matthew Boulton realised not only that this engine could power his manufactory, but that its production might be a profitable business venture.
27.
Matthew Boulton's share was worth little without Watt's efforts to improve his invention.
28.
Matthew Boulton boasted about Watt's talents, leading to an employment offer from the Russian government, which Matthew Boulton had to persuade Watt to turn down.
29.
However, the special problems for mining there, including local rivalries and high prices for coal, which had to be imported from Wales, forced Watt and later Matthew Boulton to spend several months a year in Cornwall overseeing installations and resolving problems with the mineowners.
30.
In 1779 the firm hired engineer William Murdoch, who was able to take over the management of most of the on-site installation problems, allowing Watt and Matthew Boulton to remain in Birmingham.
31.
Matthew Boulton had turned his attention to coinage in the mid-1780s; they were just another small metal product like those he manufactured.
32.
Matthew Boulton had shares in several Cornish copper mines, and had a large personal stock of copper, purchased when the mines were unable to dispose of it elsewhere.
33.
Matthew Boulton offered to strike new coins at a cost "not exceeding half the expense which the common copper coin hath always cost at his Majesty's Mint".
34.
Matthew Boulton wrote to his friend, Sir Joseph Banks, describing the advantages of his coinage presses:.
35.
Four days later, Matthew Boulton attended a meeting of the Privy Council, and was awarded a contract at the end of the month.
36.
Matthew Boulton was awarded additional contracts in 1799 and 1806, each for the lower three copper denominations.
37.
Matthew Boulton greatly reduced the counterfeiting problem by adding lines to the coin edges, and striking slightly concave planchets.
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Matthew Boulton has conducted the whole more like a sovereign than a private manufacturer; and the love of fame has always been to him a greater stimulus than the love of gain.
39.
From an early age, Matthew Boulton had interested himself in the scientific advances of his times.
40.
Matthew Boulton called such theories "Cymeras [chimeras] of each others Brain".
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Matthew Boulton's interest brought him into contact with other enthusiasts such as John Whitehurst, who became a member of the Lunar Society.
42.
In 1758 the Pennsylvania printer Benjamin Franklin, the leading experimenter in electricity, journeyed to Birmingham during one of his lengthy stays in Britain; Matthew Boulton met him, and introduced him to his friends.
43.
Matthew Boulton worked with Franklin in efforts to contain electricity within a Leyden jar, and when the printer needed new glass for his "glassychord" he obtained it from Matthew Boulton.
44.
Matthew Boulton wrote in his notebooks observations on the freezing and boiling point of mercury, on people's pulse rates at different ages, on the movements of the planets, and on how to make sealing wax and disappearing ink.
45.
The group eventually dubbed itself the "Lunar Society", and following the death of member Dr William Small in 1775, who had informally co-ordinated communication between the members, Matthew Boulton took steps to put the Society on a formal footing.
46.
Matthew Boulton generally preferred not to take on lengthy projects, and he warned Cook that its completion might take years.
47.
Matthew Boulton purchased vases from Wedgwood's pottery to be decorated with ormolu, and contemplated a partnership with him.
48.
Matthew Boulton helped build the General Dispensary, where outpatient treatment could be obtained.
49.
Matthew Boulton helped found the New Street Theatre in 1774, and later wrote that having a theatre encouraged well-to-do visitors to come to Birmingham, and to spend more money than they would have otherwise.
50.
Matthew Boulton attempted to have the theatre recognised as a patent theatre with a Royal Patent, entitled to present serious drama; he failed in 1779 but succeeded in 1807.
51.
Matthew Boulton supported Birmingham's Oratorio Choral Society, and collaborated with button maker and amateur musical promoter Joseph Moore to put on a series of private concerts in 1799.
52.
Matthew Boulton maintained a pew at St Paul's Church, Birmingham, a centre of musical excellence.
53.
Matthew Boulton supported the local militia, providing money for weapons.
54.
Besides seeking to improve local life, Matthew Boulton took an interest in world affairs.
55.
Matthew Boulton was more sympathetic to the cause of the French Revolution, believing it justified, though he expressed his horror at the bloody excesses of the Revolutionary government.
56.
When Matthew Boulton was widowed in 1783 he was left with the care of his two teenage children.
57.
In retirement Matthew Boulton remained active, continuing to run the Soho Mint.
58.
Matthew Boulton's continued activity distressed Watt, who had entirely retired from Soho, and who wrote to Boulton in 1804, "[Y]our friends fear much that your necessary attention to the operation of the coinage may injure your health".
59.
Matthew Boulton helped deal with the shortage of silver, persuading the Government to let him overstrike the Bank of England's large stock of Spanish dollars with an English design.
60.
Matthew Boulton oversaw the final issue of his coppers for Britain in 1806, and a major issue of coppers to circulate only in Ireland.
61.
Matthew Boulton had long suffered from kidney stones, which lodged in the bladder, causing him great pain.
62.
Matthew Boulton died at Soho House on 17 August 1809.
63.
Matthew Boulton is recognised by several memorials and other commemorations in and around Birmingham.
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Matthew Boulton is recognised by blue plaques at his Steelhouse Lane birthplace and at Soho House.
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Matthew Boulton College was named in his honour in 1957.
66.
In March 2009, Matthew Boulton was honoured with the issue of a Royal Mail postage stamp.
67.
On 17 October 2014 a bronze memorial plaque to Matthew Boulton was unveiled in the Chapel of St Paul, Westminster Abbey, beside the plaque to his business partner James Watt.