102 Britain's Heritage of Science 



We are all familiar with the story which tells how as a boy 

 he watched the steam escaping from a tea-kettle, and dreamt 

 of the future of steam-power. Such tales about precocious 

 signs of future greatness may have a psychological interest 

 when they are well authenticated, and given in the correct 

 perspective of surrounding circumstances; but even then 

 we should not be able to estimate their true value unless 

 we knew how many boys watched tea-kettles and made 

 acute remarks without growing up to be great men. 

 When we are told, for instance, of another eminent man 

 who as a boy was asked to see what time it was, and returning 

 after looking at the clock, said : "I can't tell you what 

 time it is now, but when I looked at the clock it was ten 

 minutes past three," we are tempted to ask what proportion 

 of the boys who could give such an answer became great 

 mathematicians, and how many merely great prigs. The 

 story of Watt's tea-kettle rests on a memorandum dictated 

 by an old lady, a cousin of his, fifty years after the occurrence, 

 but the most significant part of her account is not generally 

 mentioned. It was not the power of steam that Watt was 

 watching, but the condensation into water when the steam 

 came into contact with a silver spoon. The incident may 

 be accepted as a sign of a scientific and enquiring mind, 

 perhaps as a token of his interest in the properties of steam, 

 but not as a forecast of his future belief in the powers 

 of steam. James Watt came from a family of mathe- 

 maticians. His grandfather, Thomas Watt, was a teacher 

 of navigation, and his tombstone bears the title : " Pro- 

 fessor of Mathematics." His father was a shipwright, 

 supplying vessels with nautical instruments, and a mechanic. 

 In the latter capacity he made and erected, for the use of 

 Virginia tobacco ships, the first crane ever seen at Greenock. 

 Growing up in these surroundings, Watt at an early age 

 became familiar with the use of tools, and set up a small 

 forge for himself for the making and repairing of instru- 

 ments. He left his Scotch home and became apprenticed 

 to an instrument maker in London, but bad health obliged 

 him to return at the end of the year. When his attempt 

 to set up a shop at Glasgow was objected to by the guilds, 

 because he had not served his full apprenticeship, the 



