Matthew Boulton was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. 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.
Portrait by Carl Frederik von Breda, 1792
Blue Plaque for Matthew Boulton commemorating his birthplace in Birmingham, England
The Soho Manufactory
Boulton & Fothergill church flagon in sterling silver, 1774
James Watt was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native country Great Britain, and the rest of the world.
Portrait of Watt (1736–1819) by Carl Frederik von Breda
Statue of Watt (Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, by Francis Chantrey)
James Watt by John Partridge, after Sir William Beechey (1806)
Bust of Watt in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery