3 2 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



science, to a love of which he was probably in some degree 

 led by the example of his grandfather and his uncle, both of 

 whom had been teachers of the mathematics, and had left a 

 considerable reputation for learning and ability in that depart- 

 ment. Young Watt, however, was not indebted to any instruc- 

 tions of theirs for his own acquirements in science, the former 

 having died two years before, and the latter the year after he 

 was born. At the age of eighteen he was sent to London to 

 be apprenticed to a maker of mathematical instruments ; but 

 in little more than a year the state of his health forced him to 

 return to Scotland ; and he never received any further instruc- 

 tion in his profession. A year or two after this, however, a 

 visit which he paid to some relations in Glasgow suggested to 

 him the plan of attempting to establish himself in that city in 

 the line for which he had been educated. In 1757, accordingly, 

 he removed thither, and was immediately appointed mathe- 

 matical instrument maker to the College. In this situation he 

 remained for some years, during which, notwithstanding almost 

 constant ill health, he continued both to prosecute his pro- 

 fession, and to labour in the general cultivation of his mind, 

 with extraordinary ardour and perseverance. Here also he 

 enjoyed the friendship and intimacy of several distinguished 

 persons who were then members of the University, especially 

 of the celebrated Dr. Black, the discoverer of the principle of 

 latent heat, and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) John Robison, so well 

 known by his treatises on mechanical science, who was then a 

 student and about the same age with himself. Honourable, 

 however, as his present appointment was, and important as 

 were many of the advantages to which it introduced him, he 

 probably did not find it a very lucrative one ; and therefore, in 

 1763, when about to marry, he removed from his apartments 



