James Watt invented the steam engine. This is a fact that I learned in grade school. Such was my comprehension that I often mixed up James Watt and Robert Fulton, the inventor of the first commercially viable steamboat.
James Watt invented the steam engine. This brings up an imagine of a man having a flash of inspiration, sitting down at his drafting table, sketchy a design in 30 minutes, and passing it on to mechanics to build. The nature of such things is not so. Like Edison and his light bulb, Watt ran a long, arduous race to bring his steam engine into fruition. He built upon the work Thomas Newcomen and the atmospheric steam engine.
Watt was home schooled and self-educated. He inherited a natural genesis for things mechanic from his father. Being somewhat impatient to begin his career he did not want to go through a 7 year apprenticeship in the mechanical arts. He managed to learn what he needed to about the trade in about a year. Unfortunately, the union/guild laws of the time prevented him from plying his trade. In stepped some professors from the university at Glasgow who knew the young man by reputation. Due to the charter of the university Watt could set up a shop on university property and make a living. The real advantage, however, was that he was in contact with prominent professors and scientist as the university was one of the leading “technical” institutions of its time. They in many ways aided Watt in his quest to improve the Newcomen steam engine. They also helped him to make contact with Roebuck, an industrialist of the time, interested in an improved steam pumping engine for his mines. Roebuck went bankrupt, and the Watt-Roebuck partnership became the Watt-Boulton partnership as part of that settlement. Matthew Boulton was described by Andrew Carnegie as the first true Captain of Industry. It was this final partnership that brought the Watt’s low pressure steam engine to commercial use. This was journey of 20 years, from his first working models to his first commercial installations.
Andrew Carnegie is the well know American industrialist. Carnegie also wrote several books including this biography of James Watt. This book is more in the cheerleading category of great men, doing hard, great work resulting in great successes. Carnegie would occasionally interject his philosophy on labor and industry. Take those for what they are worth. The book is an interesting study of intellectual pursuit/obsession about an invention that changed the world.
This book is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free.
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