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Watt, James
| (1736-1819), British mechanical engineer who made fundamental improvements to Thomas Newcomen's steam engine ca. 1769, leading Britain into the Industrial Revolution. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (1785). As an instrument maker, he began making mathematical instruments for a Glasgow university, where he met scientists such as Joseph Black (who developed the concept of latent heat). While repairing a Newcomen steam engine in 1764, Watt devised a solution to reduce the loss of steam, inventing his first and perhaps greatest invention, the separate condenser (1765). In 1769 he received his first patent for improvements on the steam engine. In 1775 he entered a partnership with Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham manufacturer, and they began making engines. In 1781 he replaced the reciprocating action with rotary through his sun-and-planet gear. In 1782 he patented a double-acting engine for which, in 1784, he invented the parallel motion, of which he most proud. Two other major innovations were his centrifugal governor for automatic control of engine speed (1788) and the pressure gage (1790). He first used the term "horsepower." He was born Jan. 19, 1736, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and died Aug. 25, 1819, Heathfield Hall, near Birmingham, Warwick, England. |
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