IEEC3.1 03 The World’s First Steam Mills (1779-1783): Wasbrough and Pickard, Their Customers and Their Mills

The World’s First Steam Mills (1779-1783):

Wasbrough and Pickard,

Their Customers and Their Mills

                                                                                          Part One - The Mills of Matthew Wasbrough

                                                                                          Part Two - The Mills of James Pickard

John Townley

An off-print from

Transactions of the 3rd International Early Engines Conference - Volume 1 pp59-100

Summary

Part One - The Mills of Matthew Wasbrough

Despite various early unsuccessful attempts to produce rotary power from a steam engine1 by the last quarter of the 18th century water power was the primary motive power for most mills. The term ‘steam mills’ came to be applied to those mills for which the then considered highly innovative use of steam power alone provided the motive power.

Matthew Wasbrough of Bristol erected his first steam mill early in 1779 in his father’s clock making workshop. By the time of his death in October 1781 he had erected at least four mills in Bristol and the Midlands and had come near to supplying one to the Navy Victualling Yard at Deptford. Although the mills, as he erected them, were not a great mechanical success, his partnership with James Pickard of Birmingham meant that after his death most would be retro-fitted with Pickard’s crank & flywheel. Some of these early steam mill owners were able to exploit their advantage to generate significant profits and some would continue working well into the 19th century.

The firm of Boulton and Watt had developed an extensive network of informants - friends and business contacts, who kept them abreast of steam engine developments throughout the country. It is through the correspondence of these informants that we know so much about Wasbrough and Pickard’s engines.

This paper focuses not solely on their technology but on the entrepreneurial character of their customers and the role that these early engines served in their businesses.

Part Two - The Mills of James Pickard

Pickard, who never defended his patent, is credited with a further three engines and their engineer, John Stead of Workington, with at least one more. Pickard had quit the engine business by 1783, before Watt had erected his first rotative engine.