Reference
- Watt, James(born Jan. 19, 1736, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scot.—died Aug. 25, 1819, Heathfield Hall, near Birmingham, Warwick, Eng.) Scottish engineer and inventor. Though largely self-taught, he began work early as an instrument maker and later as an engineer on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Watt’s major improvement to Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine was the use of a separate condenser (1769), which reduced the loss of latent heat and greatly increased its efficiency. With Matthew Boulton he began manufacture of his new engine in 1775. In 1781 he added rotary motion (a so-called sun-and-planet gear) to replace the up-and-down action of the original engine. In 1782 he patented the double-acting engine, in which the piston pushed as well as pulled. This engine required a new method of rigidly connecting the piston to the beam, a problem he solved in 1784 with an arrangement of connected rods that guided the piston rod in a perpendicular motion. His application of the centrifugal governor for automatic control of the speed of the engine (1788) and his invention of a pressure gauge (1790) virtually completed the Watt engine, which had immense consequences for the Industrial Revolution. He introduced the concept of horsepower; the watt, a unit of power, is named for him.
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Perspectives
James Watt
Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt (1736-1819) is best known for his pioneering work on the steam engine that became fundamental to the incredible changes and developments wrought by the Industrial Revolution. But in this new biography, Ben Russell tells a much bigger, richer story, peering over Watt's shoulder to more fully explore the processes he used and how his ephemeral ideas were transformed into tangible artifacts. Over the course of the book, Russell reveals as much about the life of James Watt as he does a history of Britain's early industrial transformation and the birth of professional engineering. To record this fascinating narrative, Russell draws on a wide range of resources--from archival material to three-dimensional objects to scholarship in a diversity of fields from ceramics to antique machine-making. He explores Watt's early years and interest in chemistry and examines Watt's partnership with Matthew Boulton, with whom he would become a successful and wealthy man. In addition to discussing Watt's work and incredible contributions that changed societies around the world, Russell looks at Britain's early industrial transformation. Published in association with the Science Museum London, and with seventy illustrations, James Watt is not only an intriguing exploration of the engineer's life, but also an illuminating journey into the broader practices of invention in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Published in association with the Science Museum, London
How James Watt Invented the Copier
Features 25 different scientists and the ideas which may not have made them famous, but made history... Typically, we remember our greatest scientists from one single invention, one new formula or one incredible breakthrough. This narrow perspective does not give justice to the versatility of many scientists who also earned a reputation in other areas of science. James Watt, for instance, is known for inventing the steam engine, yet most people do not know that he also invented the copier. Alexander Graham Bell of course invented the telephone, but only few know that he invented artificial breathing equipment, a prototype of the 'iron lung'. Edmond Halley, whose name is associated with the comet that visits Earth every 75 years, produced the first mortality tables, used for life insurances. This entertaining book is aimed at anyone who enjoys reading about inventions and discoveries by the most creative minds. Detailed illustrations of the forgotten designs and ideas enrich the work throughout.
Pursuing Power and Light
In the nineteenth century, science and technology developed a close and continuing relationship. The most important advancements in physics--the science of energy and the theory of the electromagnetic field--were deeply rooted in the new technologies of the steam engine, the telegraph, and electric power and light. Bruce J. Hunt here explores how the leading technologies of the industrial age helped reshape modern physics. This period marked a watershed in how human beings exerted power over the world around them. Sweeping changes in manufacturing, transportation, and communications transformed the economy, society, and daily life in ways never before imagined. At the same time, physical scientists made great strides in the study of energy, atoms, and electromagnetism. Hunt shows how technology informed science and vice versa, examining the interaction between steam technology and the formulation of the laws of thermodynamics, for example, and that between telegraphy and the rise of electrical science. Hunt's groundbreaking introduction to the history of physics points to the shift to atomic and quantum physics. It closes with a brief look at Albert Einstein's work at the Swiss patent office and the part it played in his formulation of relativity theory. Hunt translates his often-demanding material into engaging and accessible language suitable for undergraduate students of the history of science and technology.
The Steam Engine's Transforming Power
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In England, Matthew Bolton and James Watt revolutionize the steam engine transforming technology and science. Patents offer protection and money. Understanding of what power actually is remains elusive
Age of Industry: History of the World
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This episode examines how Britain’s Industrial Revolution created the modern world with inventors such as James Watt and George Stevenson improving the steam engines and railways. Trade with China was opened up, albeit illegally with the Chinese Opium Wars at the ports of Guangzhou. Following in Britain footsteps, in Russia social change was underway when Count Leo Tolstoy attempted to free his serfs at his Yasnaya Polyana Estate. However, they were holding out for a better offer, that of Tsar Alexander II’s offer of an emancipation act. In North America we visit the cotton fields of Richmond, Virginia, to hear the story of the South. At a Samurai house in Japan, we hear the story of Samurai Saigo Takamori, the last Samurai, as a direct result of the new world trade. In Brussels, we learn how the British explorer Henry Morton Stanley mapped out the Congo River, only for King Leopold II of Belgium, in his quest to conquer as much as he could, caused genocide in the Congo, effects of which remain today. In Germany, we find out how their Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann brought America into the First World War.
Inventors and Engineering
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowJames Watt is responsible for creating the separate condenser. Richard Trevithick is known for the locomotive, and George Stephenson is the Father of the Railways.
Online Resources
- And the credit goes toHundreds, if not thousands, of people have been responsible for the creation, funding, development, and expansion of the Internet. However, with the passage of time the credit will likely settle on a single person. For example, while many people recognize James Watt as the inventor of the steam engine, Watt did not invent the steam engine itself. He invented ways to boost the engine's efficiency. At the time of Watt's improvements, steam engines had been used for a long time to pump water out of mines.
- INVENTOR: James WattAfter making a more efficient engine, Watt developed other features for steam engines, including a rotary engine for driving different types of machinery.
- James Watt and the reproduction of sculptureThe eighteenth-century engineers James Watt (1736-1819) and Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) are best known for their work in introducing reliable and affordable steam power to the workshops of Britain. It is less well known that in the garret workshop at Heathfield, James Watt's Birmingham home, now displayed at the Science Museum, London, a sizeable proportion of the items preserved relate to the copying and creation of sculpture. (1) Towards the end of his life, Watt developed two sculpture-copying machines (one for same size copies, one for different sizes), and he was preparing patent drawings for them at the time of his death. But the contents of the workshop show that Watt's interest in both reproduction and in sculpture originated much earlier, and manifested itself in a number of different ways. This article considers first, the various ways in which copying interests were demonstrated by Watt in his business activities; secondly, his interest in and production of sculpture, using plaster-of-Paris moulds and portrait busts of himself and others; and thirdly, his development of the sculpture-copying machines and the interest shown in them by others. Finally, it introduces surviving pieces of the three-dimensional evidence for these interests in the holdings of the Science Museum. Two donations of material came direct from the Watt family. (2) The first arrived in 1924, when the workshop contents and a significant part of the fixtures and fittings (window frames, floorboards and so on) were brought to London (figs. 1, 2) (3) and the second in 1926, when small sculpture and other material were dispatched from Doldowlod, the Watt family estate in Radnorshire, Wales. (4) The sculpture-related items in these two donations are listed in appendices to this article.
- JAMES WATT AS INTELLECTUAL MONOPOLIST: COMMENT ON BOLDRIN AND LEVINEIn their 2003 Lawrence R. Klein Lecture, Michele Boldrin and David Levine argue that intellectual property rights may be damaging to social welfare. As empirical evidence for their theory they offer James Watt's steam engine patent, claiming that it delayed the Industrial Revolution by as much as two decades. We show that this claim, as well as the more general claim that Watt's story supports Boldrin and Levine's theory, rests upon a distorted summary of the historical record.
Modern Engineering
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowProminent scientists and inventors include Ernest Rutherford, Michael Faraday, George Cayley, James Watt, and George Stephenson. Subjects of the British Empire have pioneered advances that led to radar, flight, and other modern machinery.