JAMES WATT - 1736 – 1819.

Born on 19 January 1736 in Greenock, Scotland, James Watt was a scientist , best known as an
inventor and mechanic rather than a theorist who, had a tremendous impact on the shape of modern
society. Watt did not invent the first steam engine, but his improvements to the design of the steam
engine turned it from a water pump for coal mines with few other applications into the source of
motive power that drove the Industrial Revolution.

James Watt didn’t make any direct contributions to the

field of electricity. He worked on steam engines. Steam
engines that existed prior to Watt’s innovations condensed
the steam in the cylinder by injecting cold water. This
created a pressure difference, driving the piston, but it
also cooled down the cylinder. Much energy was wasted
heating up the cylinder again with each cycle. Watt
realized this and solved the problem by adding
a separate condenser, external to the cylinder,
so that the cylinder could be kept hot.
This made the engine much more
efficient.

When the Watt engine was paired with Thomas Edison’s electrical generator in the late 19th century,
the generation of electricity on a large scale was possible for the first time. Soon after, the streets of
New York and other cities were illuminated with electric lamps. Many other uses for electricity were
developed in the following years, so that it has become thoroughly integrated into the daily lives of
people around the world.

Most electric power plants use steam power, so in a sense you could say that they also inherited some of
the legacy of Watt’s engine, even though the design is very different. (Instead of a reciprocating piston,
power plants use steam turbines.) The development of the steam engine and the formal study of
thermodynamics were closely linked, and an understanding of thermodynamics is essential for
designing electrical machines

During the course of his work with the steam engine, Watt developed the concept of horsepower as a
unit of power output. In honor of his work related to efficiency and power, a unit of power in the
International System of Units (SI) commonly used for both electricity and mechanics, the watt (equal to
one joule of work performed per second (or 1/746 horsepower)), seen in the context of electricity was
named after him.
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