WATT 



6224 



WATTEAU 



and was admitted to the bar in 1875, and began 

 the practice of his profession at Thomson, Ga. 

 In 1882 he was elected to the state legislature 

 as a Democrat, and in 1888 served as Demo- 

 cratic elector-at-large. He was active in the 

 movement of the Farmers' Alliance, and later 

 affiliated himself with the People's, or Populist, 

 party. For a time he edited a Populist paper 

 in Atlanta, and in 1890 was elected to Con- 

 gress on the Populist ticket. It was while he 

 was in Congress that he secured the appropria- 

 tion for rural free delivery. In 1904 he was the 

 candidate of the People's party for the Presi- 

 dency of the United States. Since 1906 he has 

 published Watson's Jcffersonian Magazine and 

 The Weekly Jefiersonian. He was nominated 

 for the Presidency by the Populists again in 

 1908, and polled a popular vote of about 90,000. 

 His published works include The Story of 

 France, Life of Thomas Jefferson, Life and 

 Speeches of Thomas E. Watson, The Roman 

 Catholic Hierarchy and The House of Haps- 

 burg. 



WATT, waht, in electricity, a unit for meas- 

 uring power, or the rate at which the current 

 works. A watt is equal to the pressure of one 

 volt, with a flow of one ampere per second. 

 The kilowatt, 1,000 watts, is the unit usually 

 employed; 746 watts equal one horse power. 

 See AMPERE; VOLTMETER; ELECTRIC METER. 



WATT, JAMES (1736-1819), a Scottish engi- 

 neer, born at Greenock, and generally referred 

 to as the inventor of the steam engine, al- 

 though such is not really a fact ; his fame rests 

 upon improvements in the early crude engines 

 which rendered 

 them practicable. 

 His father was a 

 carpenter and 

 merchant, and 

 the : child early 

 acquired a taste 

 for constructing 

 ingenious devices 

 out of wood and 

 metal, as well as 

 for mathematics 

 and reading in 

 general. He went 

 to London to 

 learn the trade of mathematical instrument 

 maker, and in 1756 removed to Glasgow. Fail- 

 ing at first to establish himself independently, 

 he allied himself with the university, but in 

 1760 decided to give up all his time to inde- 

 pendent work. 



JAMES WATT 



Four years later Watt had an opportunity to 

 experiment with a Newcomen engine which he 

 was repairing, and he set to work to plan a 

 device whereby loss of heat in the cylinder 

 could be avoided, and to correct the imperfect 

 method of condensing the steam. He soon 

 constructed an engine of his own, and in part- 

 nership with Matthew Boulton, a manufacturer 

 of Birmingham, removed to Soho. There thej 

 started the establishment which was soon to be 

 famous all over Europe. The first steam en- 

 gine constructed along modern lines was com- 

 pleted in 1774. In 1800 he withdrew from 

 active business, the patent then expiring which 

 he had held for twenty-five years. His two 

 sons carried on the business which he and 

 Boulton had begun, and Watt died at Heath- 

 field, in Staffordshire, on August 25, 1819. 



Watt was made a fellow of the Royal So- 

 cieties of Edinburgh and London, was a cor- 

 responding member and then a foreign member 

 of the Institute of France, and in 1806 was 

 honored with the degree of LL.D. by the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh. A national monument 

 was placed in Westminster Abbey, and a statue 

 by public subscription was erected at Birming- 

 ham. He possessed a remarkable memory, and 

 when not occupied in researches in the practi- 

 cal sciences he was engaged in reading along 

 the lines of law, philosophy, music, architecture 

 and chemistry. 



Among his other inventions are a fuel-saving 

 furnace, a machine for reproducing sculpture, 

 a copying press and copying ink, and numerous 

 instruments for use in the practical sciences. 

 He discovered independently the chemical 

 composition of water. His researches were un- 

 usually varied, and his contributions to science 

 easily place him with the foremost inventors 

 the world has known. 



There is a persistent story that the idea of 

 the steam engine came to Watt as a boy while 

 watching the power of steam in his mother's 

 tea-kettle. By plugging up the spout he blew 

 the lid off. Whether the story has a basis of 

 fact his biographers are silent. A.MC c. 



On page 5539 is an illustration, "Watt Discov- 

 ering the Power of Steam." Consult Muirhead's 

 Life of Watt; Thurston's Growth of the Steam 

 Engine. 



WATTEAU, vahtoh', ANTOINE (1684-1721), 

 a French painter who was without an equal in 

 his day in the portrayal of the manners, graces 

 and dress of fashionable society. He inter- 

 preted with wonderful skill the spirit of Court 

 life during the reign of Louis XIV. Watteau 



