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Andre-Marie Ampere |
Bibliography: Dickinson, H.W. James Watt (1936); Dickinson, H.W. and H.P. Vowles. James Watt and the Industrial Revolution (1943); Robinson, Eric H. and James Musson, eds. James Watt and the Steam Revolution: A Documentary History (1969). |
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James
Watt was a Scottish engineer and inventor who played an important part
in the development of the steam engine as a practical power source. He
studied instrument making and went (1755) to London at the age of 18 to
study further and practice his trade. In 1757, he was appointed instrument
maker at the University of Glasgow; there he met the physicist Joseph
Black, who was studying the thermodynamic (heat) properties of steam.
Watt studied the Newcomen steam engine then in use and made a number of
important improvements. In 1769, he patented a separate condenser (a chamber
for condensing the steam) for the engine. He formed (1774-1800) a partnership
with the manufacturer Matthew Boulton and The Boulton and Watt steam engines
soon replaced the Newcomen engines being used to pump water out of mines.
Other improvements developed by Watt included the twin-action piston engine
(in which steam is supplied to both sides of the piston), obtaining power
from the expansion of the steam inside the cylinder, a mechanism for transforming
the reciprocating motion of the piston into rotary motion and the centrifugal
governor (a device that made use of feedback to keep the engine at a constant
speed). Although Watt did not invent the steam engine, his improved engine
was the first practical device for efficiently converting heat into useful
work and therefore a key stimulus to the Industrial Revolution. 