ABSTRACT
A hagiography of James Watt published by The Times in May 1859 conveyed a sales argument from his business partner Matthew Boulton, later to become legendary: “I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have – POWER.” As the story goes, Boulton exhibited the source of his pride to a visitor at the Soho works, where the steam engines designed by Watt were being manufactured to the clattering noise of hundreds of workmen, in 1776. Power was offered for sale. “A new era had dawned”, the anonymous hagiographer of The Times continued, “when power could be sold upon this scale, and its creators and vendors might deem themselves princes and kings of powerless men.” ( The Times 1859, emphases in original.) This was no pun: cognizant of the transformations wrought upon the world in the age of steam, the writer of The Times clearly knew that the dual meaning of “power” was not a mere semantic coincidence. The mechanical powers mobilized by the steam engine accorded to its proprietors social powers over “powerless men”. Nothing made the machine more attractive.
