Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 11. 17 



Since that day the work of Watt has been subject to 

 many improvements, but at least one can say that none 

 of the successors of Watt has succeeded in achieving 

 such progress as did he. 



Watt was not only an unrivalled mechanic and in- 

 ventor, but also an eminent man of science. We shall 

 have occasion to speak further of him in this capacity 

 later. 



James Watt died at Heathfield on the 19th August, 

 1819. 



The evolution of the steam engine lasted about 180 

 years, from the publication of della Porta's Treatise on 

 Pneumatics in 1601, to the final inventions of James Watt 

 about 1780. During this long period humanity suffered 

 a great transformation. Europe was ravaged by continual 

 wars and incalculable treasure was squandered. History 

 has told us of struggles and conquests, of greatness and 

 decadence, of civil and religious wars, and economic 

 rivalries, and has endeavoured to give us some idea of the 

 historical evolution of the various peoples. But the true 

 historian cannot forget the march of a great idea during 

 this period, — an idea which rose by degrees and took on, 

 more and more, a perfected material form. When James 

 Watt succeeded in first turning his fly-wheel, a solemn 

 hour had struck. What a wonderful book could be 

 written on the influence of the iron giant on the history 

 of humanity, on international relations, on the develop- 

 ment of commerce, on the extension of the coal mining 

 industry and on the incalculable social and political con- 

 sequences of that extension from that hour to this ! 



But there is more. The historian endeavours to dis- 

 cover the laws of evolution, he tries to discover the 

 causes of historical phenomena. A chapter of history 

 such as that of the development of the steam engine 



