In the span of three days, over a dozen senior technicians dismissed by the Boulton-Watt Company received enthusiastic offers from the Lyon Mechanical Manufacturing Company.
This Lyon-based company was extraordinarily generous, offering not only an irresistible high salary but also promising a luxury residence in Lyon, twice-yearly company-paid trips back to Birmingham for family visits, and even solutions for their children's education and employment issues.
Though these technicians were among the top echelon across Europe, working under the selfish and ungrateful leadership of Watt, their earnings were not high.
Faced with such attractive terms and being conveniently unemployed, most accepted the invitation without hesitation.
