The Newcomen Society, which is named after the English inventor
of the steam-engine, and which exists for the study of the history of engineering and technology, ought to be more widely known on both sides of the Atlantic. For its sixth volume of Transactions (printed by the Courier Press at Leamington, 20s.) contains some articles of exceptional interest on the history of the English iron industry, on engineering in the Midlands a century ago, on the glass trade, the early American textile industry, and similar topics. Mr. Tyas, in a centenary appreciation of Matthew Murray, the steam-engine maker, prints some correspondence that shows the firm of Boulton and Watt in a most unamiable light. Fearing Murray's competition, they hired spies in his works and bought up the adjacent land so that he could not enlarge his shops. Such practices are fortunately discredited nowadays.
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