James Watt, FRS, FRSE (30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) 25 August 1819)[1]

was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the

Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the
Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.

While working as an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow, Watt became

interested in the technology of steam engines. He realised that contemporary
engine designs wasted a great deal of energy by repeatedly cooling and reheating
the cylinder. Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser, which
avoided this waste of energy and radically improved the power, efficiency, and costeffectiveness of steam engines. Eventually he adapted his engine to produce rotary
motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water.

Watt attempted to commercialise his invention, but experienced great financial

difficulties until he entered a partnership with Matthew Boulton in 1775. The new
firm of Boulton and Watt was eventually highly successful and Watt became a
wealthy man. In his retirement, Watt continued to develop new inventions though
none was as significant as his steam engine work. He died in 1819 at the age of 83.

He developed the concept of horsepower,[2] and the SI unit of power, the watt, was
named after him. Born
19 January 1736
Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Died 25 August 1819 (aged 83)[1]
Handsworth, Birmingham, England
Residence

Glasgow, Scotland, then Handsworth, England

Nationality

Scottish

Fields Mechanical engineer

Institutions University of Glasgow
Boulton and Watt
Known for

Improving the steam engine

Influences

Joseph Black

James Watt was born on 19 January 1736 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, a seaport on

the Firth of Clyde.[3] His father was a shipwright, ship owner and contractor, and
served as the town's chief baillie,[4] while his mother, Agnes Muirhead, came from a
distinguished family and was well educated. Both were Presbyterians and strong
Covenanters.[5] Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt, was a mathematics teacher and
baillie to the Baron of Cartsburn.[6] Despite being raised by religious parents, he
later on became a deist.[7][8]
Early experiments with steam

James Eckford Lauder: James Watt and the Steam Engine: the Dawn of the
Nineteenth Century, 1855

Original condenser by Watt (Science Museum)

In 1759 Watt's friend, John Robison, called his attention to the use of steam as a
source of motive power.[17] The design of the Newcomen engine, in use for almost
50 years for pumping water from mines, had hardly changed from its first
implementation. Watt began to experiment with steam, though he had never seen
an operating steam engine. He tried constructing a model; it failed to work
satisfactorily, but he continued his experiments and began to read everything he
could about the subject. He came to realise the importance of latent heatthe
thermal energy released or absorbed during a constant-temperature processin
understanding the engine, which, unknown to Watt, his friend Joseph Black had
previously discovered some years before. Understanding of the steam engine was in
a very primitive state, for the science of thermodynamics would not be formalised
for nearly another 100 years.
The watt is named after the Scottish scientist James Watt for his contributions to the
development of the steam engine. The measurement unit was recognized by the
Second Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882,
concurrent with the start of commercial power production from both water and
steam. In 1960 the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted it
for the measurement of power into the International System of Units (SI).
Copying machine
Before 1780 there was no good method for making copies of letters or drawings.
The only method sometimes used was a mechanical one using linked multiple pens.
Watt at first experimented with improving this method, but soon gave up on this
approach because it was so cumbersome. He instead decided to try to physically
transfer some ink from the front of the original to the back of another sheet,
moistened with a solvent, and pressed to the original. The second sheet had to be

thin, so that the ink could be seen through it when the copy was held up to the light,
thus reproducing the original exactly.[26][27]

Watt started to develop the process in 1779, and made many experiments to
formulate the ink, select the thin paper, to devise a method for wetting the special
thin paper, and to make a press suitable for applying the correct pressure to effect
the transfer. All of these required much experimentation, but he soon had enough
success to patent the process a year later. Watt formed another partnership with
Boulton (who provided financing) and James Keir (to manage the business) in a firm
called James Watt and Co. The perfection of the invention required much more
development work before it could be routinely used by others, but this was carried
out over the next few years. Boulton and Watt gave up their shares to their sons in
1794.[28] It became a commercial success and was widely used in offices even into
the twentieth century.
Later years

"Heathfield", Watt's house in Handsworth, Birmingham

James Watt's workshop

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 Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. . Longtime firm engineer William
Murdoch was soon made a partner and the firm prospered.

Watt continued to invent other things before and during his semi-retirement. Within
his home in Handsworth Heath, Staffordshire, Watt made use of a garret room as a
workshop, and it was here that he worked on many of his inventions.[37] Among
other things, he invented and constructed several machines for copying sculptures
and medallions which worked very well, but which he never patented.[38] One of
the first sculptures he produced with the machine was a small head of his old
professor friend Adam Smith. He maintained his interest in civil engineering and was
a consultant on several significant projects. He proposed, for example, a method for
constructing a flexible pipe to be used for passing water under the Clyde at
Glasgow.[39]

He and his second wife travelled to France and Germany, and he purchased an
estate in Wales at Doldowlod House, one mile south of Llanwrthwl, which he much
improved.

In 1816 he took a trip on The Comet, a product of his inventions, to revisit his home
town of Greenock.[40]

He died on 25 August 1819 at his home "Heathfield" in Handsworth, Birmingham,

England, at the age of 83. He was buried on 2 September.