THE WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE^277
Sheffield and the Northeast. His memoranda, later published, still
make a valuable source of information on the techniques of his time.*
The same was true of the British advances in chronometry, the key to
superior navigation: in 1769, the Board of Longitude allowed French
visitors to open and examine the revolutionary marine clocks of John
Harrison on the assumption that these should contribute to all of
mankind. (Harrison, when he learned of this, threw a fit.)^2
Some places and trades were not so welcoming. In Birmingham, a
center of metal trades, every maker had his knacks and tricks. Crafts-
men there were rationally paranoiac in their conviction that every
stranger was an enemy. Not only foreigners; Englishmen as well.
Arthur Young, traveler and observer extraordinary, wrote of his hostile
reception in that busy town.
I was no where more disappointed than at Birmingham; where I could
not gain any intelligence even of the most common nature, through the ex-
cessive jealousy of the manufacturers. It seems the French have carried off
several of their fabricks, and thereby injured the town not a little: This
makes them so cautious, that they will shew strangers scarce anything....^3All of which did not stop the manufacturers of Birmingham from en-
gaging in their own spying. Britain was not the only country with tech-
niques worth learning or stealing (although by now it had the lion's
share of the potential loot), and British manufacturers had no more
scruples than their Continental rivals. Besides, it takes two to tango,
and skilled craftsmen, like savants and artists, took all of Europe as
their home.^4 One of the most valuable secrets of French metalworkers,
for example, was the gilding, usually on brass or bronze, known as or-
molu (or moulu)—bright, shiny, phony, hence immensely profitable.
Matthew Boulton gained fame as James Watt's partner in the manu-
facture of steam engines, but he began as master maker of buttons,
buckles, watch chains, candlesticks, and all manner of metal objects.
Boulton put money and men out in every direction to learn this French
technique; also to seduce French craftsmen and artists, with their tools
- Jars also visited metallurgical installations in Styria, Bohemia, the Liège district
(now Belgium), and Sweden. Although he died shortly after his final trip, to ironworks
in eastern and central France (1768-69), he was able to communicate his findings per-
sonally to a number of ironmasters and technicians, among them Ignace de Wendel.
Part of his reports was published by his brother, also named Gabriel, as Voyages mé-
tallurgiques (1774-81)—Woronoff, L'industrie sidérurgique, p. 16. Also Harris, Essays
in Industry, pp. 87-88.