Robert Dick, a University scientist, was impressed with Watt's basic skills at instrument making, but recognized the need for special training. Dick encouraged Watt to go to London for training. Watt spent two weeks in London looking for an apprenticeship opportunity. However the instrument makers protected their trade by rules of a body known as the Worshipful Company of Clock-makers.
The only employment was for fully-trained instrument makers or trainees serving seven-year apprenticeships! John Morgan, an instrument maker in the heart of London, did not always follow the rules, and agreed to take Watt as an apprentice on the conditions of little pay! Morgan recognized the capabilities of Watt, and agreed to shorten the apprenticeship to a period of one year. Watt took the offer in Within two months, Watt's abilities surpassed those of Morgan's official apprentice, who had been there two years.
Watt was eager to cram several years of training into one, and worked 10 hour days in the cold workshop. After hours, he worked for a small amount of cash, and his father sent him a little, but he maintained long hours on little food, and his health declined. During this time, Britain was at war with France, and the military would force into service any able-bodied man. Watt avoided the streets for this reason, which may have affected his health further. Watt finished his apprenticeship year successfully, but his health collapsed almost immediately afterwards.
Watt returned to Glasgow in , now a trained instrument maker. His University of Glasgow acquaintances learned of his return, and gave him some work. Watt set up his shop, but found that other instrument makers shunned his credentials and training.
He was an outsider in Glasgow, after being trained in London. The University professors recognized his abilities, and did not need to abide by the traditions of the instrument makers. They arranged for permission to set up a shop for Watt on University grounds and created the position "Mathematical Instrument Maker to the University". Even with the new position, Watt still had trouble finding enough work since the other instrument makers were somewhat hostile.
He started making musical instruments to avoid competition. His musical instruments were improvements over existing models and business began to grow. In , an architect gave him backing to open a new shop in the heart of Glasgow. His business and reputation grew steadily and by he had apprentices of his own, but he was not out of debt. Watt always had work from the University scientists, so he maintained through the years his shop on the University property. Professor John Anderson was the older brother of a grammar school companion, Andrew.
One day in , Professor John Anderson brought Watt a new problem. The University had a lab-scale model of the Newcomen pump to investigate why the full-scale pumps required so much steam. The model suffered a problem. It would stall after a few strokes. Watt recognized that the flaw was due to an undersized boiler that couldn't provide enough steam to reheat the cylinder after a few strokes. See Newcomen pump details. During troubleshooting of the lab-scale model, Watt discovered the main reason the full-sized engines consumed such vast quantities of steam.
However, implementation of the solution did not come easily. The Newcomen pumps required such vast quantities of steam since they were cooled during every stroke, then reheated.
Watt needed a way to condense the steam without cooling the cylinder. Watt turned over the problem in his head for months and performed many experiments. He learned much about steam properties, and independently discovered latent heat of vaporization in his experiments. He also tabulated the vapor pressure of water at various temperatures before the work of Clapeyron. One of his University friends was Professor Black, who had discovered latent heat previously and had been lecturing on it without Watt's knowledge.
They shared many interesting conversations after Watt told Professor Black of his "discovery". The concept for the breakthrough to improve the Newcomen engine came in May of , over two years after Watt began to study the engine. Watt later described the moment of inspiration:. I had entered the green by the gate at the foot of Charlotte Street and had passed the old washing-house. I was thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone as far as the herd's house, when the idea came into my mind that as steam was an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel it would rush into it, and might be there condensed without cooling the cylinder.
I then saw that I must get rid of the condensed steam and injection-water if I used a jet as in Newcomen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me.
First, the water might be run off by a descending pipe, if an offlet could be got at the depth of thirty-five or thirty-six feet, and any air might be extracted by a small pump. The second was to make the pump large enough to extract both water and air.
I had not walked farther than the golf-house when the whole thing was arranged in my mind. With a separate condenser, the condensation process could take place constantly and the steam cylinder could be evacuated while remaining hot. The vapor would rush into the condenser where the pressure was approximately equal to the vapor pressure of water.
Watt would not work on the Sunday, as was the custom of the day. Joseph would later go on to develop the concept of latent heat. James would also befriend the famed Adam Smith. In James became acquainted with John Craig, a local businessman, and architect. The two formed a partnership that allowed James to open another shop in Glasgow to sell musical instruments as well as toys.
This partnership lasted for six years and the pair eventually employed up to sixteen workers. Craig sadly died in One of their employees, Alex Gardner, eventually took over the business which actually lasted well into the 20th Century. In he married his cousin Margaret Miller, who, before she died nine years later in childbirth, bore him six children. In James found himself repairing a model Newcomen steam engine. Watt quickly realized just how inefficient the design was, it wasted a lot of steam.
James decided to wrestle with the design to improve its efficiency. In he finally came up with a solution. The Newcomen engine had been in use for almost 50 years for pumping water from mines. Its design had hardly changed in that time. James's idea was to provide the engine with a separate condenser.
This was to be his first and greatest invention. Watt had noticed that the problem with the Newcomen steam engine was its loss of latent heat. At this time understanding of the steam engine was in a very primitive state.
The science of thermodynamics would not be formalized for at least another years. James managed to repair the model but it hardly worked. He continued to experiment with it and found that around three-quarters of the thermal energy of the engine were being consumed in heating the engine cylinder on every cycle.
This energy was wasted because later in the cycle cold water was injected into the cylinder to condense the steam to reduce its pressure. Thus by repeatedly heating and cooling the cylinder, the engine wasted most of its thermal energy rather than converting it into mechanical energy. This loss of latent heat was a huge defect with the Newcomen engine in James's opinion.
Watt's solution would have the condensation effected in a chamber distinct from the main cylinder but connected to it. In , Watt was hit by inspiration. He realized was to cause the steam to condense in a separate cylinder apart from the piston. James also realized that the engine would need to maintain the temperature of the cylinder at the same temperature as the injected steam by surrounding it with a "steam jacket.
This would mean that very little energy was absorbed by the cylinder every time it cycled. This would produce a considerable increase in the availability of energy to perform useful work. James would later meet the British Physician, chemist, and inventor John Roebuck. John was the founder of the Carron Works and it was he that encouraged James to make his own engine.
James Watt and John would enter into a partnership together after he had made a small test engine. His prototype was made possible by some loans from Joseph Black. Roebuck lived at Kinneil House, Bo'ness at the time and Watt would work in perfecting the engine in a small adjacent cottage to the house.
The cottages shell and a very large part of one of his experiments still exist today. The engine's progress was stalled because of the difficulty in machining the piston and cylinder for his engine. Ironworkers at the time were more akin to blacksmiths that modern-day machinists. They were, therefore, unable to produce the components with high enough precision. James Watt had become strapped for cash.
This forced him to seek out employment. In Watt had become a land surveyor. The next eight years of his life was consumed marking out routes for canals in Scotland. This work severely ate his time and his work on his new steam engine was severely set back. His partner Roebuck would sadly go bankrupt in An English manufacturer and engineer Matthew Boulton who was also the manufacturer of the Soho Works in Birmingham took over Roebuck's shares in Watt's patent.
After eight years of land surveying, James would become jaded with the task. Partly owing to his new partnership with Boulton, James moved to Birmingham in His partnership with Boulton would provide James with access to some of the best ironworkers in the world. This helped immensely with producing parts with enough precision needed for his engine.
James Watt's patent was extended by the British Parliament in The same year Boulton and Watt would form a more official partnership that would last for more than 25 years. The financial support that Boulton provided allowed for the rapid progress of Watt's engine. So fast, in fact, that by two engines were installed and fully functional. One engine was delivered and installed to pump water at the Staffordshire colliery.
The other was used for blowing air into furnaces at John Wilkinson's forges. In James would also marry again to his new wife Ann MacGregor. She bore him two more children. Over the next five years, right up to , James Watt would spend long periods of time in Cornwall. Here he installed and supervised numerous pumping engines for the lucrative copper and tin mines of the area. James's engine's had become very sought after as mine managers were looking for ways to reduce costs including fuel costs.
James Watt 's early engines were not manufactured by Boulton and Watt directly. His steam engines were used for pumping water out of mines and gradually he became a wealthy man.
By the Industrial Revolution was beginning to transform life in Britain and Watt adapted his steam engine to provide a rotary motion so they could be used to power machines in the new factories.
In he made the sun and planet gear to do this. In steam engines were used to power machines in cotton mills for the first time. Meanwhile in Watt invented another major improvement the double-acting steam engine. In Watt invented the fly ball governor to regulate the speed of steam engines and in he invented a pressure gauge.
In James Watt was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Watt died on 25 August and he was buried in Birmingham. Finally, in , a unit of electrical power was named the watt in his honor. Previous post. Next post. They had 2 children.
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