James Watt: The Man Who Invented the Steam Engine | Heroes of Progress | Ep. 13

James Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Mostly homeschooled, he spent much of his childhood in his father's shipbuilding workshop. Aged 18, Watt traveled to London to study mathematical instrument making and eventually opened his own shop in Scotland in 1757. In 1764, Watt was given a Newcomen steam engine to repair at his workshop. Invented in 1712, the Newcomen engine operated by condensing steam in a cylinder, which in turn created enough push to power a piston. While fixing the engine, he observed that a lot of the steam was wasted due to the machine's single-cylinder design. He realized that having to repeatedly heat and cool the same cylinder wasted more than three-quarters of the steam's thermal energy. To remedy that inefficiency, Watt's design condensed the steam in a separate condenser, thus keeping the cylinder at a stable temperature. Watt's 1765 discovery greatly improved the performance of the steam engine and helped to launch the Industrial Revolution. Watt entered a business partnership with John Roebuck. The pair patented Watt's design in 1769 and started to market it in 1776. The demand for Watt's engine grew, and it was quickly adopted across multiple industries. During his lifetime, Watt received numerous awards. In 1960, the Watt Unit of Power was named after him. Today, all developed countries have gone through the process of industrialization, a phenomenon that the Watt engine helped to kickstart. It is for that reason that James Watt is deservedly our 13th Hero of Progress.