James Watt - Taschenbuch

JAMES WATI By Andrew Carnegie Author of The Empire of BntineM, Goipel of Wealth, Triumphant Democracy, American Four-in-Hand in Britain, Round the World Etc. New York Doubleday, Page Company 1905 Copyright, 1905, by Doubleday, Page Company Published, May, . 1905 All rights reserved, including that of translation also right of translation into the Scandinavian languages PREFACE When the publishers asked me to write the Life of Watt, I declined, stating that my thoughts. were upon other matters. This settled the question, as I supposed, but in this I was mistaken. Why shouldnt I write the Life of the maker of the steam-engine, out of which I had made fortune Besides, I knew little of the history of the Steam Engine and of Watt him self, and the surest way to obtain knowledge was to comply with the publishers highly complimentary request. In short, the subject would not down, and finally, I was compelled to write again, telling them that the idea haunted me, and if they still desired me to undertake it, I should do so with my heart in the task. 1 now know about the steam-engine, and have also had revealed to me one of the finest characters that ever graced the earth. For all this I am deeply grateful to the publishers. I am indebted to friends, Messrs. Angus Sinclair and Edward R. Cooper, for editing my notes upon Scientific and Mechanical points. The result is this volume. If the public, in reading, have one tithe of the pleasure I have had in writing it, I shall be amply rewarded. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS Authors Preface v CHAPT1E JAGI I. Childhood and Youth 3 II. Glasgow to London Return to Glasgow . 23 III. Captured by Steam 45 IV. Partnership with Roebuck .... 67 V, Boulton Partnership 87VI. Removal to Birmingham . . . 121 VII. Second Patent 157 VIII. The Record of the Steam Engine . . 195 IX. Watt in Old Age 213 X. Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer . . 223 XL Watt, the Man ...... 233 Childhood and Youth CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 7 neighbors, ahd leaving behind them records So much for the male branch of the family tree, but this is only hT What of that of the grandmothers and mothers of the line equally important For what a Scotch boy born to labor is to become, and how, cannot be forecast until we know what his mother is, who is to him nurse, servant, governess, teacher and saint, all in one. We must look to the Watt women as carefully as to the men and these fortunately we find all that can be desired. His mother was Agnes Muirhead, a descendant of the Muirheads of Lachop, who date away back before the reign of King David, ji22. Scott, in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, kives us the old ballad of The Laird of Muirhead, who played a great part in these unsettled days. The good judgment which characterised the Watts for three generations is nowhere more clearly shown than in the lady James Watts father courted and finally succeeded in securing for his wife. She is described as a gentlewoman of reserved and quiet deportment, esteemed by her neighbours for graces of person as well as of mind and heart, and not less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her cheerful temper and excellent housewifery. Her likeness is thus drawn, and all that we have read elsewhere concerning her confirms the truth of the portrait. Williamson says that 8 LIFE OF JAMES WATT the lady to whom he Thomas Watt was early united in was Miss Agnes Muirhead, a gentlewoman ofgood understanding and superior endowments, whose excellent management in house hold affairs would seem to have contributed much to the order of her establishment, as well as to the every-day happiness of a cheer ful home. She is described as having been a person above common in many respects, of a fine womanly presence, ladylike in appear ance, affecting in domestic arrangements according to our tra ditions what, it would seem was considered for the time, rather a superior style of living...