Watt, James
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Wikipedia-Article "James Watt"
This article is about the Scottish engineer and inventor. For Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, see James G. Watt.
James Watt (January 19, 1736 – August 19, 1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution.
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Biography
Early years
James Watt was born on January 19, 1736 in Greenock on the Clyde River, Scotland. His father was a prosperous shipwright, shipowner and contractor, while his mother, Agnes Muirhead, came from a distinguished family and was well-educated. Both were Presbyterians and strong Covenanters.
Watt was a delicate child, attending school irregularly and instead mostly schooled at home by his mother. He exhibited great manual dexterity, an aptitude for mathematics and absorbed the legends and lore of the Scottish people.
When he was seventeen, his mother died and his father's fortunes had begun to fail. Watt traveled to London to study mathematical instrument-making for a year, then returned to Scotland – to Glasgow – intent on setting up his own instrument-making business. However, because he had not served at least seven years as an apprentice, the Glasgow Guild of Hammermen (any artisans using hammers) blocked his application, despite there being no other mathematical instrument-makers in Scotland.
Watt was saved from this impasse by the professors of Glasgow University, who offered him the opportunity to set up a small workshop within the university. It was established in 1757 and one of the professors, the physicist and chemist Joseph Black, became Watt's friend and mentor.
In 1767 Watt married his cousin, Margaret Miller, with whom he would have six children.
Engineering achievements
Four years after opening his shop, Watt began to experiment with steam after his friend, Professor Robison, called his attention to it. At this point Watt had still never seen an operating steam engine, but he tried constructing a model. It failed to work satisfactorily, but he continued his experiments and began to read everything about it he could. He independently discovered the importance of latent heat in understanding the engine, which, unknown to him, Black had famously discovered some years before. He learned that the University owned a model Newcomen engine, but it was in London for repairs. Watt got the university to have it returned, and he made the repairs in 1763. It too just barely worked, and after much experimentation he showed that about 80% of the heat of the steam was consumed in heating the cylinder, because the steam in it was condensed by an injected stream of cold water. His critical insight, to cause the steam to condense in a separate chamber apart from the piston, and to maintain the temperature of the cylinder at the same temperature as the injected steam, came finally in 1765 and he soon had a working model.
Now came a long struggle to produce a full-scale engine. This required more capital, some of which came from Black. More substantial backing came from John Roebuck, the founder of the celebrated Carron Iron Works, with whom he now formed a partnership. But the principle difficulty was in machining the piston and cylinder. Iron workers of the day were more like blacksmiths than machinists, so the results left much to be desired. Much capital was expended in pursuing the ground-breaking patent, which in those days required an act of parliament. Strapped for resources, Watt was forced to take up employment as a surveyor for eight years. Roebuck went bankrupt, and Matthew Boulton, who owned the Soho foundry works near Birmingham, acquired his patent rights. Watt and Boulton formed a hugely successful partnership which lasted for the next twenty-five years.
Now Watt finally had access to some of the best iron workers in the world. The difficulty of the manufacture of a large cylinder with a tightly fitting piston was solved by John Wilkinson who had developed precision boring techniques for cannon making. Finally, in 1776 the first engines were installed and working in commercial enterprises. These first engines were used for pumps and produced only reciprocating motion. Orders began to pour in and for the next five years Watt was very busy installing more engines, mostly in Cornwall for pumping water out of mines.
The field of application of the invention was greatly widened only after Boulton urged Watt to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston to produce rotational power for grinding, weaving and milling. Although a crank was the logical and obvious solution to the conversion Watt and Boulton were stymied by a patent for this, whose holder, John Steed wanted an outrageous fee. They circumvented the patent by their sun and planet gear in 1781. Over the next six years, he made a number of other improvements and modifications to the steam engine. A double acting engine, in which the steam acted alternately on the two sides of the piston was one. A throttle valve to control the power of the engine, and a centrifugal governor to keep it from "running away" were very important. A compound engine, which connected two or more engines was described. Two more patents were granted for these in 1781 and 1782. Numerous other improvements that made for easier manufacture and installation were continually implemented. One of these included the use of the steam indicator which produced an informative plot of the pressure in the cylinder against its volume, which he kept as a trade secret. These improvements taken together produced an engine which was something like five times as efficient in its use of fuel as the Newcomen engine.
Because of the danger of exploding boilers and the ongoing issues with leaks, Watt was opposed at first to the use of high pressure steam, and is held by some to have held back the technical development of the steam engine by other engineers, until his patents expired in 1800. In particular his prohibitions on his employee William Murdoch working with high pressure steam on his steam locomotive experiments delayed the development & application of this invention. With his partner Matthew Boulton he battled against rival engineers such as Jonathan Hornblower who tried to develop engines which did not fall foul of his patents. Boulton proved an excellent businessman, and both men eventually made fortunes.
Later years
In 1794 the partners established Boulton and Watt to exclusively manufacture steam engines, and this became a large enterprise. By 1824 it had produced 1164 steam engines having a total nominal horsepower of about 26,000. Watt retired in 1800, the same year that his fundamental patent and partnership with Boulton expired. The famous partnership was transferred to the men's sons, Matthew Boulton and James Watt, Jr. William Murdoch was made a partner and the firm prospered.
Watt continued to invent other things before and during his semi-retirement. He invented a new method of measuring distances by telescope, a device for copying letters, improvements in the oil lamp, a steam mangle and a machine for copying sculpture.
He and his second wife traveled to France and Germany, and he purchased an estate in Wales, which he much improved.
He died in his home at Heathfied on August 25, 1819 at the age of 83.
Controversy
There is some dispute as to whether Watt was the original inventor of some of the numerous inventions and principles which he filed patents for. It was his practice, (from around the 1780's) to file either vague patents or to pre-empt others ideas which were known to him by filing patents with the intention of securing credit for the invention for himself, and ensuring that no one else was able to carry out work in a particular field. As he states in a letter to Boulton of 17 August 1784:
- "I have given such descriptions of engines for wheel carriages as I could do in the time and space I could allow myself; but it is very defective and can only serve to keep other people from similar patents".
Two examples of this practice are his patenting of the sun and planet gear in 1781 and a steam locomotive in 1784, both of which were originated and invented by his employee William Murdoch.
Legacy
James Watt's model of the steam engine converted a machine of limited use to one of efficiency and multiple applications. It was the foremost energy source in the emerging Industrial Revolution, and greatly multiplied its productive capacity. It was also essential in later transportation advances, such as the steamboat and locomotive.
Watt was ranked #22 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.
Honors
Watt was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Batavian Society, and one of only eight Foreign Associates of the French Academy of Sciences.
Remembrance
Watt was buried in the grounds of St. Mary's Church, Handsworth, in Birmingham. Later expansion of the church, over his grave, means that his tomb is now buried inside the church. A colossal statue of him by Chantrey was placed in Westminster Abbey. A statue of him, Boulton and Murdoch is in Birmingham.
The SI unit of power, the watt, is named after him.
He is also remembered by the Moonstones and a school is named in his honour, all in Birmingham. There are 4 colleges named after him in Scotland, James Watt College in Kilwinning (North Ayrshire Campus) and Greenock (2 in Greenock, Finnart Campus and Waterfront Campus) and a campus in Largs. So is Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University. There are over 50 roads or streets named after him, in the UK. Many of his papers are in Birmingham Central Library.
Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, is now a museum, commemorating the work of both men.
Bibliography
- Carnegie, Andrew James Watt University Press of the Pacific (2001) ISBN 0898755786. Reprinted from the 1913 ed.
- Hills, Rev. Dr. Richard L. James Watt, Vol 1, His time in Scotland, 1736-1774 (2002), 480pp, many illus., Landmark Publishing Ltd, ISBN 1843060450. [The second volume covering his time in England until his death in 1819 is due for publication in 2005.]
External links
- James Watt by Thomas H. Marshal: [1]
- James Watt by Andrew Carnegie: [2]
- James Watt Important Scots
