CHAPTER PAGE

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 87

VI. 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

XI. Watt, the Man 233

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

James Watt, born in Greenock, January 19, 1736, had the advantage, so
highly prized in Scotland, of being of good kith and kin. He had indeed
come from a good nest. His great-grandfather, a stern Covenanter, was
killed at Bridge of Dee, September 12, 1644, in one of the battles which
Graham of Claverhouse fought against the Scotch. He was a farmer in
Aberdeenshire, and upon his death the family was driven out of its
homestead and forced to leave the district.

Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt, was born in 1642, and found his way to
Crawford's Dyke, then adjoining, and now part of, Greenock, where he
founded a school of mathematics, and taught this branch, and also that
of navigation, to the fishermen and seamen of the locality. That he
succeeded in this field in so little and poor a community is no small
tribute to his powers. He was a man of decided ability and great natural
shrewdness, and very soon began to climb, as such men do. The landlord
of the district appointed him his Baron Bailie, an office which then had
important judicial functions. He rose to high position in the town,
being Bailie and Elder, and was highly respected and honored. He
subsequently purchased a home in Greenock and settled there, becoming
one of its first citizens. Before his death he had established a
considerable business in odds and ends, such as repairing and
provisioning ships; repairing instruments of navigation, compasses,
quadrants, etc., always receiving special attention at his hands.

The sturdy son of a sturdy Covenanter, he refused to take the test in
favor of prelacy (1683), and was therefore proclaimed to be "a
disorderly school-master officiating contrary to law." He continued to
teach, however, and a few years later the Kirk Session of Greenoc