JAMES WATT. 33 



in the University to a house in the city, and entered upon the 

 profession of a general engineer. 



For this his genius and scientific attainments admirably 

 qualified him. Accordingly, he soon acquired a high reputa- 

 tion, and was extensively employed in making surveys and 

 estimates for canals, harbours, bridges, and other public works. 

 His advice and assistance indeed were sought for in almost all 

 the important improvements of this description which were 

 now undertaken or proposed in his native country. But 

 another pursuit, in which he had been for some time privately 

 engaged, was destined ere long to withdraw him from this line 

 of exertion, and to occupy his whole mind with an object still 

 more worthy of its extraordinary powers. 



While yet residing in the College his attention had been 

 directed to the employment of steam as a mechanical agent 

 by some speculations of his friend Mr. Robison, with regard 

 to the practicability of applying it to the movement of wheel- 

 carriages ; and he had also himself made some experiments 

 with Papin's digester, with the view of ascertaining its expansive 

 force. He had not prosecuted the inquiry, however, so far as 

 to have arrived at any determinate result, when, in the winter 

 of 1763-64, a small model of Newcomen's engine was sent to 

 him by the Professor of Natural Philosophy to be repaired, 

 and fitted for exhibition in the class. The examination of this 

 model set Watt upon thinking anew, and with more interest 

 than ever, on the powers of steam. 



The first thing that attracted his attention about the machine 

 before him, the cylinder of which was only of two inches 

 diameter, while the piston descended through six inches, was 

 the insufficiency of the boiler, although proportionally a good 

 deal larger than in the worlcing engines, to supply the requisite 



