[Born at Greenock, 1736. Died 1819. Aged 83.]
It has been said that the genius of Watt, as displayed in his mechanical
inventions, has contributed more to show the practical utility of the
sciences, to extend the power of man over the material world, to
multiply and expand the conveniences of life, than the works of any
other individual in modern times. His was a rare mechanical genius. It
had been nurtured from his infancy at home; where he lived, as a boy, in
solitary retirement, cultivating observation and reflexion, and kept
apart from other boys by weak bodily health. It may be affirmed that his
whole life was one long day’s labour, for his enlightened industry never
ceased. When a mere child, he would take to pieces and reconstruct every
toy that came in his way. At nineteen he went to London, and placed
himself with a maker of mathematical instruments there, making delicate
instruments for his employer with his own hands. “With those same
hands,” says M. Arago, a little fancifully, since the head now took the
place of the hands, “he afterwards constructed those colossal machines
which in Cornwall, and on the ocean, perform the service of millions of
horses.” But the improvement of the steam-engine, until it attained its
highest point of perfection, is not Watt’s sole claim to the title of a
discoverer. Without knowing a note of music, he constructed an organ,
and in a great measure solved the problem of _temperament_. He invented
the press for copying letters; he introduced the process of bleaching by
the aid of chlorine; he explained the composition of water, and the art
of warming by steam. The extent, variety, and accuracy of Watt’s
knowledge were amazing. No subject seemed foreign to him, and upon every
subject he spoke as if that alone had all his life engaged his
attention. Sir Humphrey Davy declared that Watt stood upon a higher
elevation than Archimedes. Great as were his powers, he was a man of
child-like candour, and of the greatest simplicity.
[By Flaxman.]