184 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



to open a shop in the city of Glasgow, but the guilds refused 

 their permission. Fortunately for Watt and for humanity 

 the University authorities had complete control within 

 their own grounds, so they assigned him a workroom and 

 enabled him to set the guilds at defiance. 



Amongst the apparatus which was sent to him to repair 

 was a model of Newcomen's engine. Watt succeeded in 

 putting it in working order, but was disgusted with the 

 small result which it gave for the combustion of a large 

 amount of fuel. Just about this time his friend Dr. Joseph 

 Black, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow 

 and the discoverer of carbonic acid, had made his cele- 

 brated investigations into latent heat, and this gave Watt 

 accurate ideas in regard to the practical relations of steam. 

 After much study and many experiments he worked out 

 the condensing engine, which did an equal amount of 

 work with less than one-fourth the fuel required by New- 

 comen's engine. This enabled the Cornish mine owners to 

 carry on work in mines which otherwise must have been 

 abandoned as unprofitable. Other improvements followed, 

 and while the old engines were never used for any other 

 purpose than pumping, the new engines of Watt were 

 capable of being profitably employed for driving machinery 

 and other kinds of work. 



But at no stage of this progress could any advancement 

 be said to have been due to mere accident; it was all the 

 result of deep study and hard work. 



