Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 6 on 6/2/2003.

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Industrial revolutionary: James Watt

HIS MODIFICATIONS OF THE STEAM ENGINE WERE SO SUCCESSFUL THAT SCOT JAMES WATT TRANSFORMED INDUSTRY FOREVER

Born in 1736 in Greenock near Glasgow, James Watt was the son of a ship-chandler. With little formal education, he showed great aptitude for maths and engineering, and became an instrument-maker for the University of Glasgow at 19. In 1763 he was asked to repair the university’s model of a Newcomen engine. These engines were used to pump water from mines but were inefficient and expensive.

So, Watt was not the first to develop the idea of a steam-driven engine. It all began in 1675. A French scientist, Denis Papin, based in London, developed a primitive engine consisting of an open-ended cylinder, with a piston fixed inside. The cylinder was heated and the piston rose
as steam was created. Then the cylinder was cooled, condensing the steam and creating a vacuum. The piston was then freed and made a fast downward stroke, forced by atmospheric pressure. The cylinder was then reheated.

An engineer, Thomas Savery of Plymouth, furthered Papin’s ideas by generating the steam in a separate vessel, and cooling the cylinder by pouring water over its exterior, forming a vacuum into which water could be drawn. This method was used to pump water from wells and mines. Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith from Dartmouth, went a step further, spraying water inside the cylinder to condense the steam and using the piston to pull down a beam on a pivot, with a pump at the other end. The first Newcomen engine was used in 1712.

Watt calculated that around 75% of the energy was wasted in operating t.....

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By Brigid James

Section : Scottish Innovators

Page number : 82