Boulton and Watt

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A Boulton & Watt blowing engine re-erected on the Dartmouth Circus roundabout (near postcode B6 4AS), on the A38(M) in Birmingham, UK. It was built in 1817 and used in Netherton at the ironworks of M W Grazebrook

The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt, formed in 1775 to make steam engines at their Soho Foundry in Smethwick, near Birmingham, England. The partnership was passed to two of their sons in 1800. The firm lasted over 120 years, and was still making steam engines in 1895.

The oldest working engine in the world is their Smethwick Engine. Another working Boulton and Watt beam engine, dating from 1812, can be found at Crofton Pumping Station. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, houses the world's oldest working rotary steam engine, built by Boulton and Watt in 1785 to grind malt in Whitbread's London brewery.

The firm left an extremely detailed archive of its activities, which was given to the city of Birmingham in 1911 and is kept at Birmingham Central Library, which has since obtained various other related archives.