Over the course of three days, all of the dozen-odd senior technicians dismissed by Bolton-Watt Company received enthusiastic offers from Lyon Machinery Manufacturing Company.
This Lyon-based company was exceptionally generous. Not only did it offer salaries too high to refuse, but it also promised a luxury residence in Lyon, two company-funded trips back to Birmingham each year to visit family, and even assistance with their children's education and employment.
Though these technicians ranked among the very best in all of Europe, their incomes had not been particularly high while working under Watt, a selfish and ungrateful leader.
Now, faced with such lavish terms and having just lost their jobs, nearly all of them accepted without hesitation.
Well, Lyon Machinery Manufacturing Company had been established through an investment from the Industrial Development Fund at Joseph's instruction. It primarily produced low- and mid-range Steam Engines. On the one hand, this allowed United Steam Engine Company to devote more of its efforts to high-end, high-power Steam Engines; on the other, it prevented United Steam Engine Company from dominating the market alone and forming a monopoly.
And since the Lyon company had only recently been founded and was desperate for talent, the British thoughtfully "sent" them people.
In truth, the abilities of these British technicians were not worth the price Lyon Machinery Manufacturing Company had offered. But in order to get them out of the United Kingdom, Joseph did not mind spending a little extra.
Even if it only slowed the pace of the British Industrial Revolution by a few months, those expenses would earn themselves back several hundredfold.
Meanwhile, as tens of thousands of pounds sterling were poured into advertising, more than half of Europe heard that the United Kingdom had developed a new type of High-Pressure Steam Engine at an exceptionally low