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When James Watt sat with busy reflective mind staring at a boiling kettle, and discovered the expansive power of steam, no one could have for a moment imagined that in the course of years the inventions founded on the truth then discovered would result in the systematic driving of a fleet of floating palaces all round the world at the rate of from twelve to fifteen or twenty miles an hour!
Such men were Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Watt, Wedgwood, Brunel, Stephenson and Bessemer; and such a man was John A. Roebling. It was his striking peculiarity, that while his conceptions were bold and original, his execution was always exact, and within the limits of cost which he assigned to the work of his brain.
It was you who took me to the basement shack and introduced me. I remember how I gaped when I saw the 150 watt transmitter Bill had built." Takis then described how he had heard a distress signal on his home-made receiver. It was in a language he could not understand so he called his father, who was quite a linguist, to listen.
James Watt, however, invented and applied the first effective means by which steam came to serve mankind. And so the modern steam engine begins with him.
The people of Greenock may well indeed feel proud of being citizens of a town that produced such a man; for though many places have given birth to great and valuable men, and persons who rendered the world vast and lasting service, yet, I may safely say, no one has surpassed James Watt in the benefits he has bestowed on the world, on its trade, its commerce, and its means of communication for both body and mind, as the producer of the steam-engine.
The reasons given by Boulton for being unable to proceed to the side of his friend and partner in Glasgow, shed clear light upon the condition of affairs at Soho. Their London agent, like Watt, was also to be married and would be absent. Fothergill had to proceed to London. Scale, one of the managers, was absent. Important visitors were constantly arriving.
Watt, who conducted the operations of the railways and beacon-house, had landed with nine artificers. At half-past one p.m. Mr. Peter Logan had also landed with fifteen masons, and immediately proceeded to set up the crane.
We have seen before that Watt had to retrace his steps and abandon for a time in later engines what he had before ventured upon. The application of steam for propelling boats upon the water was, at this time , attracting much attention. Boulton and Watt were urged to undertake experiments.
While Watt was still in boyhood, his wise father not only taught him writing and arithmetic, but also provided a set of small tools for him in the shop among the workmen a wise and epoch-making gift, for young Watt soon revealed such wonderful manual dexterity, and could do such astonishing things, that the verdict of one of the workmen, "Jamie has a fortune at his finger-ends," became a common saying among them.
In another moment he forgot all French encroachments, and the imbecility of geographers in general, as his glance chanced to fall upon a young woman of fresh and striking beauty, and delightful piquancy of ways and expression, who with a clumsy club was pounding fragments of pottery urns, vases, and goglets for the foundation of the watt.
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