Watt

Author: Sun Wenfang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: We are delighted to recommend the "Giant Biographies Series" to young friends. At the turn of the century, having such a fine series accompany you is a joy in wisdom. We believe that from the footsteps of these giants and masters, you can learn how to properly handle success and failure, comfort and hardship, joy and pain, smoothness and trials, understand how to face life, how to learn to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, how to shape oneself, and how to shape the future.
Principal of Peking University, Secretary Zhao Yulin
Principal of Tsinghua University, Secretary Zhao Qinggang
Giants are the elite of humanity. They have made outstanding contributions to the progress and civilization of human society. Their spirit of struggle and extraordinary achievements are deeply admired by people, becoming models for others to learn from. Giants are human, not gods; they come from ordinary people but surpass them. Their lofty ideals and belief in serving the motherland and humanity are the driving forces behind their relentless pursuit and fearlessness of difficulties.
Principal of Tianjin Nankai, Kang Xiuyan
By carefully reading this series, you will feel as if you see their appearance, hear their words, and experience their ideals, beliefs, aspirations, and moral character. This will help you learn how to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, and how to build a career.
Principal of Fudan University, Cao Tianren
James Watt (1736–1819)
Watt, James, British inventor and mechanical engineer, one of the main inventors of the steam engine. Born on January 19, 1736, in Greenock, Scotland, and died on August 25, 1819, in Heathfield. From a young age, he was fond of crafts and geometry, becoming proficient in woodworking, metalworking, forging, and model making in his youth. In 1753, he went to Glasgow and London to study instrument manufacturing. In 1757, he returned to Glasgow. In 1764, he repaired a steam engine model for the University of Glasgow, beginning his research and improvement of the steam engine. In 1785, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, in 1806 received a doctorate in law from the University of Glasgow, and in 1814 was elected an honorary member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Watt improved the Newcomen steam engine and produced a practical single-acting steam engine in 1765. On October 10, 1781, he obtained a patent for the double-acting steam engine. In 1784, he improved the steam engine's valve gear, adopting a condenser with an air pump and a four-bar linkage mechanism to move the piston parallelly. In 1788, he invented a centrifugal governor that could control the opening degree of the intake valve, thereby controlling the speed of the steam engine. In 1790, he invented a pressure gauge, which brought the steam engine to perfection. He standardized the parts of the steam engine and put it into mass production. In 1794, Watt changed the planetary gear mechanism to a crank-connecting rod mechanism, and finally completed the invention of the double-acting steam engine. Watt was the one who proposed the unit of power "horsepower," and the unit of power "watt" in the International System of Units is named after his surname.