1736-1819
Inventor

Early Years. Born in Greenock, Scotland, James Watt was largely self-educated before he went to London in 1755 to learn the trade of mathematical-instrument manufacturing. Two years later he returned home to become instrument maker for the University of Glasgow. Watt became interested in steam power after he was called on to repair a Newcomen steam engine (steam used to pump water from mines). During the 1760s, with financial support from English inventor John Roebuck (1718-1794), Watt experimented with improving the efficiency of this steam engine, which operated on the negative pressure of a vacuum created when steam in a cylinder was cooled and condensed by the introduction of water. With his first engine (patented in 1769), Watt overcame the wasteful use of steam in the Newcomen design by employing a separate condensing chamber that eliminated the need to cool and reheat the cylinder for every...