What seemed to finalize the impact of the Watt engine on the Industrial Revolution was his creation of the double-acting engine. Doubling the efficiency, it condensed steam both above and below ...

Watt refined the engine until it was efficient enough to run all sorts of machinery. Thanks to Watt, steam powered the first railway engine in 1804. He died in 1819 and the electrical unit, the ...

This article was originally published with the title “ Centenary of the Steam Engine—James Watt ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 20 No. 19 (May 1869), p. 297 doi:10.1038 ...

Over at mises.org, Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine challenge the standard story of James Watt and the steam engine. Their conclusion: In most histories, James Watt is a heroic inventor ...

The steam engine may seem like a relic of the past. But without this game-changing invention, ... But by 1765, the fate of Newcomen's engine was sealed. In that year, James Watt, ...

Picture the inventor toiling in splendid isolation. From such lonely genius spring the technologies that change our lives: from Gutenberg, the printing press; from James Watt, the steam engine ...

The steam engine drove the Industrial Revolution ... When it was refined by 18th century scientists such as James Watt, steam power overcame the limitations of using relatively weak men or ...

Watt's genius was not limited to his steam engine: he invented a raft of other things, including a centrifugal governor to limit the speed of his engines, sun-and-planet gears as an alternative to ...

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen built an engine that made use of a piston, and, beginning in 1769, James Watt improved on steam engine design with a string of patents that included innovations such as ...

An engine indicator is an instrument for graphically recording the cylinder pressure versus piston displacement through an engine stroke cycle. Engineers use the resulting diagram to check the design ...

The model will be on display at the University Library from June 6 as part of a public exhibition exploring Watt’s life.

This article was originally published with the title “ The First Steam Engine--James Watt ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 6 No. 6 (October 1850), p. 45 doi:10.1038 ...