244 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. FT. nt 



the discoveries of the day. * Whenever any difficulty ar- 

 rested us,' writes a student named Robison, ' we used to run 

 to our workman, and he never let go his hold until he had 

 entirely cleared up the proposed question.' One day it was 

 necessary to read a German book on mechanics ; Watt 

 immediately set to work and learnt German, and another 

 time, for the same reason, he studied the Italian language. 

 It is scarcely surprising that a man with such talent and 

 perseverance as this, who was also gentle and loving to 

 everybody, should be sought after both by masters and 

 students. 



Among those who came to Watt's shop was one Ander- 

 son, professor of physics, who, finding that a little model of 

 a steam-engine in the University museum was out of order, 

 brought it to Watt to be repaired, and thus led the way to 

 his invention. And here it is necessary to point out two 

 things : First, you must not suppose that by a steam-engine 

 is meant a railway engine ; all contrivances which move by 

 the power of steam are steam-engines, and locomotive engines 

 which draw carriages were not made till 1804, long after 

 Watt's time. Secondly, you must get rid of the idea, which 

 many people have, that Watt was the first man to make an 

 engine which moved by steam. This was done long before 

 his time. The thing which Watt really did was to make 

 an engine such as we now use, working entirely by steam, 

 without the help of air, and doing an enormously greater 

 amount of work with the same quantity of fuel than any 

 others had done before. 



The Newcomeri Engine, 1705. Steam had been 

 used to turn a globe by Hero of Alexandria, a Greek who 

 lived 120 years before Christ; and Baptiste Porta in 1580, 

 Solomon de Caus in 1615, and the Marquis of Worcester 

 in 1663, all tried to make use of steam to do work. Again, 



