James Watt

(January 19, 1736 - August 25, 1819)

(Steam Engine)

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James Watt was an inventor who developed the steam engine which became the basis of the Industrial Revolution.

James Watt was born on January 19, 1736 in Greenock, a seaport on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. His father was a ship owner and contractor, while his mother, Agnes Muirhead, came from respectable and educated family.

Watt did not attend school regularly and more but was educated at home by his mother. He showed incredible agility and talent to an exact science like mathematics, although Latin and Greek does not move his heart, he liked the legend and folklore Scotland.

When she was 18 years old, his mother died and his father's health began to decline slowly, Watts traveled to London to continue the study on the manufacture of instruments and equipment for one year, then returned to Scotland with the aim of making your own instrument-making business. But because he did not complete his seven-year study as apprentices (students who work while studying), request to open the business is hampered, though at that time there has been no mathematical instruments and equipment makers in Scotland.

With the assistance of three professors in the University of Glasgow, James Watt was eventually given the opportunity to open a workshop (workshop) in a small university.

Four years after opening his shop, James Watt began to experiment with steam after his friend, Professor John Robison, make him interested in the machine. At that time, Watt did not even operate a steam engine, but he still tried to make a model of the machine. Although it failed, he continued his experiments and began to read what can be read. She then independently discovered the importance of thermal energy generated and absorbed by every object to understand more about the engine. in 1765 he managed to create an engine model that can work well.

In recognition of his services for the development of the steam engine sparked the industrial revolution, the name of Watt immortalized and used as energy unit with the symbol W, the International System of Units (or 'SI') as we know it today.