" Then again: "The bust-making must be given up
until we get a more solid frame. I have worked two days at one
and spoiled it, principally from the want of steadiness." For
Watt, it must be remembered, was now a very old man.
He then proceeded to send Murdock the drawing of a "parallel
motion for the machine," to be executed by the workmen at Soho.
The truss braces and the crosses were to be executed of steel,
according to the details he enclosed. "I have warmed up," he
concludes, "an old idea, and can make a machine in which the
pentagraph and the leading screw will all be contained in the
beam, and the pattern and piece to be cut will remain at rest
fixed upon a lath of cast iron or stout steel." Watt is very
particular in all his details: "I am sorry," he says in one note,
"to trouble you with so many things; but the alterations on this
spindle and socket [he annexes a drawing] may wait your
convenience." In a further note, Watt says. "The drawing for
the parallel lathe is ready; but I have been sadly puzzled about
the application of the leading screws to the cranes in the other.
I think, however, I have now got the better of the difficulties,
and made it more certain, as well as more simple, than it was. I
have done an excellent head of John Hunter in hard white in
shorter time than usual. I want to show it you before I repair
it.
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