655 



WATT, JAMES. 



WATT, JAMES. 



553 



a lady named Muirheid, who was the mother of James Watt, and of a 

 younger son, John. By his various occupations he obtained an honour- 

 able fortune ; but in his later years some unsuccessful enterprises ren- 

 dered it " necessary that both of his sons, at as early an age as possible, 

 should bo trained to rely for their future comfort or distinction, and 

 even for their very subsistence, on their own independent exertions." 

 His death took place in 1782, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 



Being, even in infancy, of a very delicate constitution, the early 

 education of James Watt was in a great measure of a domestic charac- 

 ter, although he attended for a time the public elementary school at 

 Greenock. His ill health, which often confined him to his chamber, 

 appears to have led him to the cultivation, with unusual assiduity, of 

 his intellectual powers. It is said that when only six years of age he 

 was discovered solving a geometrical problem upon the hearth with a 

 piece of "chalk ; and other circumstances related of him justify the 

 remark which is said to have been elicited from a friend on the above 

 occasion, that he was "no common child." About 1750, or shortly 

 afterwards, he amused himself by making an electrical machine ; and 

 from a curious anecdote related by Arago, it would appear that the 

 grand subject by which he subsequently immortalised himself formed, 

 thus early, matter of contemplation to the young philosopher. The 

 anecdote referred to appears to have been communicated to Arago by 

 a member of Watt's family. It is, in .effect, that his aunt, Miss Muir- 

 heid, who did not entertain the fame opinion as his father of the 

 powers of the boy, upbraided him one evening at the tea-table for 

 wLat seemed to her to be listless idleness : taking off the lid of the 

 kettle and putting it on again ; holding sometimes a cup and some- 

 times a silver spoon over the steam ; watching the exit of the steam 

 from the spout ; and counting the drops of water into which it became 

 condensed. With the increased light imparted by a knowledge of his 

 subsequent career, the boy pondering before the tea-kettle will, perhaps, 

 as observed by his enthusiastic French biographer, be viewed as the 

 great engineer preluding to the discoveries which were to immortalise 

 him; though its supposed connection with the idea of a separate con- 

 denser for the steam-engine is merely verbal. 



John, a younger brother of James Watt (who was lost at sea in one 

 of his father's vessels, in the year 1762, at the age of twenty-three), 

 having determined to adopt the business of his father, James was left 

 to follow, in the choice of a profession, the bent of his own inclination; 

 but the versatility of his talents rendered the choice somewhat difficult. 

 During his youth his taste for the beauties of nature and love for 

 botany had been developed on the banks of Loch Lomond, while his 

 rambles among the mountain scenery of his native land called forth an 

 attention to mineralogy and geology. Chemistry was a favourite sub- 

 ject when he was confined by ill health to his father's dwelling. The 

 boundless field of natural philosophy was opened to him by the 

 popular work of 'SGravesande, translated from his ' Physices Mathe- 

 matica;' and, like many other valetudinarians, he read eagerly works 

 on surgery and medicine. He was found on one occasion conveying 

 into his room for dissection the head of a child who had died of some 

 unknown disease. 



But among the occupations of his father was included that of sup- 

 plying ships with various kinds of nautical apparatus and instruments. 

 In assisting him his son appears to have acquired some useful rudi- 

 ments of practical mechanics, as well as good habits of commercial 

 diligence. He soon learned also to construct with his own hands 

 several of the articles vended by his father, thus gaining familiarity in 

 working with the different kinds of metal, wood, and other materials. 

 From the aptitude which he displayed in this kind of work, and in 

 accordance with his own deliberate and earnest choice, it was decided 

 that he should proceed to qualify himself for following the trade of a 

 mathematical-instrument maker. 



With this object in view, Watt came to Glasgow in June 1754, 

 being then eighteen years of age, and remained under the roof and care 

 of his maternal relations, the Muirheid s, till the month of May in the 

 following year; but from the details of his early life given by Mr. 

 Muirhead, his most recent and authentic biographer, it is clear that 

 the statement formerly made that he passed an early apprenticeship at 

 Glasgow, is in all respects erroneous, and that the alleged contempo- 

 raneous incidents are at least apocryphal. During his stay, he enjoyed 

 the advantage of being introduced to the notice and acquaintance of 

 several of the most learned professors in the University, through the 

 instrumentality of his mother's kinsman, Professor George Muirhead. 

 He never attended however any course of lectures delivered within the 

 walls, or by the teachers of the college, though he at once gained the 

 favourable notice of Dr. Dick, who was joint professor of Natural 

 Philosophy with his father, and who strongly recommended his pro- 

 ceeding to London to acquire better instruction in the art which he 

 designed to practise than could at that time be gained in Scotland, at 

 the same time furnishing him with a valuable personal introduction to 

 the celebrated telescope-maker, James Short. Accordingly, on the 

 7th of June 1755, he set out for the great metropolis, in charge of Mr. 

 Maw, the captain of an East Indiaman, about to join his ship, who had 

 married Watt's cousin-german. Through Mr. Maw, he was employed 

 " in cutting letters and figures, &c," in the shop of a watchmaker named 

 Neale, who wished to have some of hia work to show, and by the first 

 week of July we find him, through the exertions ot Mr. Short, at work 

 on the brass part of Hadley's quadrants, with Mr. John Morgan, a 



mathematical-instrument maker in Finch-lane, Cornhill. An agree- 

 ment was soon concluded, with the approbation of his father, by which 

 Mr. Morgan was to give him a year's instruction, for which he was in 

 return to pay twenty guineas and also to give his labour for that 

 period. His application was severe and intense, and his progress rapid 

 and steady, and when June again came round, he announced to his 

 father, with some reasonable pride, that he could now make " a brass 

 sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of 

 framing work as is in the trade." At the close of his engagement he 

 found himself compelled by ill-health to seek his native air, and at the 

 end of August 1756, he took leave of London and of Mr. Morgan ; first 

 however making an investment of about twenty guineas in half a 

 hundred additional tools, with '' absolute necessary " materials for " a 

 great many more that he knew he must make himself," together with 

 a copy of "Bion's Construction and Use of Mathematical Instruments," 

 as translated by Edward Stone. The following October furnished an 

 opportunity for the employment of his little stock in trade, as well as 

 of his newly-acquired skill, by the arrival from Jamaica of a valuable 

 collection of astronomical instruments formed by Mr. Alexander 

 Macfarlane, and bequeathed by him to the University. Dr. Dick 

 having requested him to help to unpack them, they were found to 

 have suffered by the sea air, upon which, by a University minute, 

 Watt as being " well skilled in what relates to the cleaning and pre- 

 serving of them," was desired to put them in order, receiving in pay- 

 ment five pounds, which, "in all probability," says Mr. Muirhead, 

 " was the first money he had earned on hia own account, since the 

 termination of his apprenticeship." The " Macfarlane Observatory " 

 was afterwards erected for the reception and use of the instruments. 



Shortly afterwards Watt endeavoured to establish himself in business 

 in Glasgow, but, owing to his not being a burgess, he met with oppo- 

 sition from the corporation of arts and trades, who considered him an 

 intruder upon their privileges, and refused to allow him to set up 

 even the humblest workshop. From this difficulty he was extricated 

 by the interposition of the authorities of the university, which was not 

 under city jurisdiction. The university offered him an asylum within 

 their precincts, where they permitted him to establish a shop ; and they 

 also honoured him with the _title of their mathematical-instrument 

 maker. These circumstances happened in about the year 1757, when 

 Watt had scarcely attained his twenty -first year ; and it appears that 

 he was especially indebted, for the friendship shown by the authorities 

 of the university, to the kind offices of Adam Smith, author of the 

 'Wealth of Nations,' Dr. Black, Eobert Simson, the eminent mathe- 

 matician, and also of Dr. Dick. The first branch of his business which 

 became profitable was the manufacture and sale of Hadley's quadrants. 

 As he proceeded in other departments, Watt displayed much ingenuity 

 and manual dexterity; and his superior intelligence led those who had 

 first known him only as an expert and amiable artificer, to form habits 

 of intimacy and friendship with him, BO that his workshop became a 

 favourite resort for the most eminent scientific men in Glasgow. His 

 intimate friend, Professor Robison [Ro BISON, JOHN], then a student 

 ardently pursuing his investigations in mathematical and mechanical 

 philosophy, in a manuscript unpublished when used by Arago, but 

 printed in Mr. Muirhead's recent collection, expresses the surprise 

 which he felt when, on being introduced to Watt, whom he expected 

 to find merely an intelligent workman, he found a philosopher, as 

 young as himself, yet willing and able to instruct him, or any of the 

 students who might fall into difficulties. He needed but prompting 

 to take up and conquer any subject; and Robison states that he learnt 

 the German language in order to peruse Leupold's ' Theatrum Machi- 

 narum/ because the solution of a problem on which he was engaged 

 seemed to require it ; and that similar reasons led him subsequently 

 to study Italian. Without neglecting his business in the daytime, 

 Watt devoted his nights to various aud often profound studies ; and 

 the mere difficulty of a subject, provided it was worthy of pursuit, 

 seems to have recommended it to his indefatigable character. In 

 illustration of this characteristic of his miud, it is related that he 

 undertook aud accomplished the building of an organ, although he is 

 said to have been so totally insensible to the charms of music that he 

 could not distinguish one note from another. His instrument was no 

 less remarkable for its harmony than for several important improve- 

 ments in its mechanical details; and he is stated to have conquered 

 certain difficulties respecting the theory of temperament in music, a 

 matter then very little understood, and of which he could have gained 

 no knowledge except through the profound but very obscure work 

 published on the subject by Dr. Robert Smith of Cambridge. He also 

 constructed other musical instruments, of several distinct kinds. 



The earliest occasion on which the attention of Watt was seriously 

 directed to the properties of steam appears to have been about 17S5, 

 when his friend Robison suggested to him the possibility of propelling 

 wheel-carriages by the agency of steam, and Watt commenced a model 

 of a contrivance for the purpose, but various difficulties iutervened, 

 and both Watts and Robison having other matters which required 

 their immediate attention, the scheme was abandoned. He states 

 however, that about 1761 or 1762 he tried some experiments on the 

 force of steaui in the apparatus known as Papiu's digester ; and con- 

 structed and worked a small model, consisting of an inverted syringe, 

 the bottom of the rod of which was loaded with a weight; alternately 

 admitting the steam below the piston and letting it off into the 



