In 1766 Watt closed his shop at the university and opened a land surveying and civil engineering office in Glasgow, where he practiced as a civil engineer until 1774. Besides these signal contributions to the technology of the atmospheric steam engine, Watt also originated a perspective drawing machine, a letter-copying process, an indicator liquid for testing acidity, and a steam wheel (which he was unable to perfect) for producing rotary motion directly from steam pressure. This initial success was followed over the next quarter-century by a remarkable sequence of additional inventions related to the steam engine-the sun-and-planet gearing system to translate the engine’s reciprocating motion into rotary motion without employing the common crank (which was entangled in patent claims) the application to the steam engine of the double-acting principle that was then commonly used in pumps the “expansive principle” whereby Watt recognized that because of its expansive power, steam need not be admitted into the cylinder during the entire stroke the “parallel motion” with which he connected a rigid piston rod to the overhead beam without causing the rod to wobble and the “indicator” for determining the pressure in the cylinder during the cycle. He patented it in 1769 and developed it commercially, first in partnership with John Roebuck and later with Matthew Boulton. He soon became acquainted with John Robison (who first directed his attention to the steam engine) and Joseph Black and it was in 1765, during his association with the university, that he made his first and most important invention, the separate condenser for the Newcomen engine. It was only through the influence of friends on the faculty of the University of Glasgow that he was able in 1757 to evade the jurisdiction of the corporations of tradesmen through an appointment as “mathematical instrument maker to the university.” Watt thus found the setting that fostered much of his technical and scientific work. Watt hoped to establish himself in Glasgow as an instrument maker, but he was prevented from doing so by guild restrictions. He found London both disagreeable and a strain on his health, however, and a year later he returned to Scotland. In 1775 he went to London, where he spent a year as an apprentice, rapidly mastering the arts and crafts that entered into the making of navigational and scientific instruments. Schooling, however, composed only the lesser part of his education the more consequential portion he received in his father’s shop, where he first gained the knowledge and skills of contemporary craftsmanship-woodworking, metalworking, smithing, instrument making, and model making.Īt the age of eighteen, having decided to follow the career of scientific instrument maker, Watt left Greenock and took up residence in nearby Glasgow, which was then becoming a center of commerce and industry. Owing to his fragile health Watt’s attendance at elementary school was somewhat irregular, but he nonetheless attained some proficiency in geometry (in which he showed great interest), Latin, and Greek. His mother, Agnes Muirhead (or Muireheid), was descended from a family that had at one time been prominent in Scottish life. Watt’s grandfather and father had both followed technical pursuits: the former, Thomas, as a teacher of surveying and navigation (“professor of the mathematicks”) and the latter, James, as a shipwright and maker and supplier of nautical instruents. Even as a young child, he enjoyed playing with tools and machines and experimenting with different ways to fix and improve them.( b Greenock, Scotland, 19 January 1736 d Heathfield, England, 19 August 1819), engineering, chemistry.Īlthough Watt’s achievements as an inventor and an engineer have been fully recognized and universally honored, the dependence of his technical work on contemporary science and his own scientific research have long provoked sharp differences of opnion. They later moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where George opened a tobacco business. When Elijah was 3, his family moved back to the U.S. George McCoy enlisted in the British forces, and in return, he was awarded 160 acres of land for his service. His parents-George and Mildred McCoy-had been enslaved from birth and became freedom seekers leaving Kentucky for Canada on the Underground Railroad. 1868-1872), Mary Eleanor Delaney (m.1873-1922)Įlijah McCoy was born on May 2, 1844, in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. Awards and Honors: National Inventors Hall of Fame.Died: October 10, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan.Born: May 2, 1844, in Colchester, Ontario, Canada.Known For: McCoy was a Black inventor who improved steam engine technology by designing an automatic lubricator.
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