The Biography of James Watt

Early Life James Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in Greenock, the United Kingdom to James Watt and Agnes Muirhead. He was not a healthy child because he suffered from toothaches. This medical condition made it where he had to be homeschooled. His mother taught him reading while his father taught him arithmetic and writing. He loved to operate on a small toolkit in his father’s workshop. In this way, he got attracted to the skill of crafting instruments. During his teenage years, and his father lost his inheritance due to financial disasters, and his mother died. In the meantime, he decided to pursue a career in mathematical instrument making. Achievement and Career-(Middle Life) In 1754, he went to Glasgow and got acquainted with Robert Dick through one of his relatives working at Glasgow University. Robert encouraged him to master the skill of instrument making by working as an apprentice in London.

In 1757, with the help of his friends at the Glasgow University he opened a shop on the university campus and was appointed as the “Mathematical Instrument Maker to the University." He was in charge of the new instruments which required particular attention. In 1763, the most crucial moment of his life arrived, when a professor brought his attention to a Newcomen steam engine that was not working correctly. This challenged his creativity and scientific knowledge, and he set finding a solution for it through his instrument making skills. After a study of two years, in 1765 he devised a unique way to modify the engine to improve it’s working which led to the invention of the steam engine. To this day, informed as one of the most significant achievements of all times. The steam engine was made to pump water to all different mines.

The reason the Watt steam engine was so successful is that his steam engine prevented enormous losses of steam. Legacy and awards-(Ending Life) In 1768, John Roebuck and James Watt built a steam engine. Also, this year watt took out a patent for “A New Invented Method of Lessing the Consumption of Steam and Fuel in Fire Engines." James Watt elected a member of the royal society of Edinburgh 1763. In 1806, he was conferred the honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Glasgow, but, a little while after this James Watt passed on August 25, 1819, at his house in England at age 83.