James Watt

1736-1819. Scottish inventor, famous for improving Thomas Newcomen's steam engine.

James Watt (born January 19, 1736, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland—died August 25, 1819, Heathfield Hall, near Birmingham, Warwick, England) was a Scottish instrument maker and inventor whose steam engine played a significant role in shaping the Industrial Revolution. Watt gained recognition for patenting both the double-acting engine and an early steam locomotive. In 1785, he achieved the honor of being elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Education and training

Watt's father managed a successful ship- and house-building enterprise. Watt received early education from his mother at home and later, during his time in grammar school, he acquired knowledge in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. A crucial part of his learning came from his father's workshops, where he used his own tools, workbench, and forge to create models (e.g., cranes and barrel organs) and became acquainted with ship instruments.

At the age of 17, Watt decided to pursue a career as a mathematical-instrument maker. He initially traveled to Glasgow and in 1755 to London, where he found a master to guide his training. Though health problems prevented him from completing a proper apprenticeship, by 1756 he felt he had acquired sufficient skill “to work as well as most journeymen.” Upon returning to Glasgow, Watt opened a shop in 1757 on the university campus, specializing in the production of mathematical instruments such as quadrants, compasses, and scales.

During his time at the university, he formed connections with many scholars and scientists. Among them were renowned economist Adam Smith and British chemist and physicist Joseph Black, whose experiments on the concept of latent heat would prove crucial to the development of Watt's future steam engine designs. In 1764, Watt married his cousin Margaret Miller, and over the next nine years, they had six children before her untimely death. In 1777, Watt married Ann MacGregor, daughter of a Glasgow dye-maker and the couple had two children.

The Watt engine

While fixing a prototype Newcomen steam engine in 1764, Watt was struck by its inefficient use of steam. In May 1765, following efforts to tackle its improvement, he discovered a solution—the separate condenser, his first and most noteworthy invention. Watt recognized that the Newcomen engine's major flaw was the loss of latent heat (heat involved in changing a substance's state, such as from solid to liquid).

Thus, he concluded that condensation needed to occur in a separate chamber connected to, but distinct from, the cylinder. Soon after, he met John Roebuck, a British physician, chemist, and inventor, known for founding the Carron Works. Roebuck encouraged him to develop an engine. In 1768, they formed a partnership after Watt created a small test engine with financial support from Joseph Black. The next year, Watt secured the renowned patent for "A New Invented Method of Lessening the Consumption of Steam and Fuel in Fire Engines."

While working as a land surveyor in 1766, Watt remained consistently occupied for the next eight years, marking out canal routes in Scotland. Hence, this work obstructed his advancement with the steam engine. Following Roebuck's bankruptcy in 1772, Matthew Boulton, an English manufacturer and engineer associated with the Soho Works in Birmingham, acquired a share in Watt's patent. Disinterested in surveying and in Scotland, Watt relocated to Birmingham in 1774.

Following the extension of Watt's patent through an act of Parliament in 1775, he and Boulton initiated a 25-year partnership. Boulton's financial support facilitated rapid advancements with the engine. By 1776, two engines were put into operation—one for water pumping in a Staffordshire colliery, and the other for supplying air to the furnaces of British industrialist John Wilkinson, the renowned ironmaster.