Manuscript papers and extensive correspondence

An archive of exceptional importance. It consists of James Watts personal papers, his extensive incoming correspondence; bound volumes of copies of his outgoing letters, notebooks and journals including his experiment notebooks on latent heat and copying ink; personal and business accounts; surveying reports and memoranda, and extensive legal papers concerning the protection of his patents. These are supplemented by the accounts and letter books of his father, James Watt of Greenock and of his sons, James junior and Gregory. There are 4,500 incoming letters from scientists as diverse as Joseph Priestley, Humphry Davy, Thomas Telford, Thomas Beddoes, Erasmus Darwin, Sir Joseph Banks, Lorenz Crell, James Hutton and Marsiglio Landriani. Illustrated at p.23 of AR