[5] It also provided power for raising corn, fanning it to free it of impurities, sifting it, dressing the meal and lowering it into the barges, which made the process more efficient.

[4] The mill was built in 1786 by Matthew Boulton,[3] with the backing of City financiers and Joah Bates, an organ player and composer who "embarked all his own money and 10,000/ belonging to his wife" to build it.

[1] Watt's engine was tested before numerous spectators, including Sir Joseph Banks, but encountered problems with the sun and planet gear, and the piston rods.

The cost of erecting the mill proved to be considerably in excess of the original estimate, and Watt soon feared that it would turn out to be a losing concern.

He had no doubt that the engines or the machinery would be able to do all that had been promised; but he feared that the absence of business capacity on the part of the managers would be fatal to the mill's commercial success.

[10] Arson was strongly suspected, but John Rennie and Wyatt, the manager of the mill, blamed a lack of grease on a corn machine in front of the kiln, and called the fire an accident.