Noah Young Physics 8th Period September 24, 2012 James Watt James Watt was born in Greenock,

Renfrewshire on January 19, 1736. In 1764 he married his cousin, who died giving birth to their fifth child. Watt began to experiment with the steam engine in 1759 when he noticed that only about one quarter of the steam was used efficiently. The other three quarters were being wasted (Frazer 296). Watt came up with the idea to condense the steam in a separate chamber from the piston and keep it the same temperature as the injected steam. He and his partner, John Roebuck, worked on a large scale model which neither deemed satisfactory for many reasons (Carnegie, James Watt). Eventually, Watt was able to get a large engine working and managed to get its design patented, which Roebuck had majority control of. In 1773 Roebuck needed money and sold the right to the patent to Matthew Boulton, who he had indirectly introduced to Watt. Soon Watt and Boulton were working on bigger, better steam engine. The two worked very well together and Watt moved to Birmingham in order to join Boulton's shop. (Carnegie, James Watt) Watt and Boulton formed a partnership and created the Boulton-Watt engine, which was a major improvement to the steam engine that converted it from a prime mover of marginal efficiency into the mechanical workhorse of the Industrial Revolution. (Anderson, New Scientist: 685) In 1784 Watt was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was elected a member of Batavian Society for Experimental Philosophy in 1787. The watt (a unit of power equal to on joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion or transfer) was named after him in 1889 for his contribution to the steam engine. (Dickinson 197) James Watt continued to invent and innovate after his retirement but never patented any of his projects. He died on August 25th, 1819 at the age of 83.