The industrial revolution, which is one of the most important developments in the history of humanity, brought great changes in almost every field. The steam engine developed by Scottish inventor James Watt formed the basis of the industrial revolution.
Who is James Watt? (1736-1819)
James Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in the town of Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland. Little James, a weak boy, met at an early age with the migraines that he would suffer throughout his life. His family, who took great care of James, provided various opportunities to keep him busy to make him forget his suffering. His father, a shipbuilder, did not leave his son James alone. He introduced his son to various tools so that he could have a pleasant time and improve his hand skills. During his time with his father, who was a good carpenter, little James was developing his mechanical skills as well as manual dexterity. His favorite subject in elementary school was math. This was mainly because he understood that mathematics was necessary and useful in order to produce new things. Seeing the importance of mathematics in both shipbuilding and carpentry, little James learned to use his numerical skills and mechanical skills together from this period. James Watt, who was interested in his father's business from an early age, was most influenced by steam engines.
From the 18th century, steam engines began to be used in Scotland, and steam engines began to replace human labor in various jobs. It was possible to come across steam engines, especially used as water pumps in mines, in many of Scotland's mines. These pumps, which were used for the discharge of water from the mines, started a new era in the field of mining. Steam engines, which facilitated the evacuation of water in the depths, made the work in the mining area safer. From his childhood, James Watt studied the structure of mechanical instruments such as compass, dial and telescope used on ships and thought about how to improve them. At the age of 17, he decided to become a device maker. In order to improve himself in this field, he first went to the city of Glasgow and then to London. In this process, he received the most important support from his father. During his one-year stay in London, he acquired very important skills in the field of device maker. But the physical conditions of London deteriorated the health of James Watt. He returned to Glasgow in 1757 due to increasing migraine headaches.
After returning to Glasgow, James Watt began manufacturing mathematical devices within the university. During this period he spent producing devices such as compass, scales, and height measuring devices for Glasgow University, he also began to get to know Scottish scientists. His friendship with the chemist Joseph Black enabled him to develop himself in the field of thermodynamics. Developing the concept of latent heat, Black would later inspire James Watt on the conversion of heat energy into motion energy. At the age of 29, James Watt became professionally interested in steam engines. During this period, he was both repairing steam engines and thinking about what could be done to improve them. The Newcomen engines, the most used in Scotland, greatly facilitated the evacuation of water. However, the working principle of these engines was extremely inefficient. While the engine was running, only a small part of the steam could be used, and steam losses could not be prevented. Therefore, the energy cost of Newcomen engines was quite high. He saw that if he could minimize steam losses by developing these engines, he could open a new page in the field of steam engines.
James Watt's innovation for Newcomen engines was a new steam condenser arrangement that prevented steam losses. In these engines, the conversion of heat energy was provided in a special cylinder. The transfer of heat from solids to liquids and from liquids to gases took place in the same cylinder. According to James Watt, this situation, which leads to energy loss, could be overcome by the conversion of heat energy in a separate mechanism connected to the cylinder. This arrangement, called a condenser, prevented heat loss and provided energy efficiency since it was separate from the condensation cylinder. John Roebuck, whom he met during this period, was very impressed with James Watt's invention and they decided to make a motor together. Thanks to their partnership, James Watt was able to produce his first capacitor motor. In 1769, James Watt's patent was for a new steam engine that reduced fuel consumption in fire engines. Thanks to this invention, a new page was opened in the history of steam engines. In this process, John Roebuck left the partnership and transferred his shares to Matthew Boulton. In the 1770s, the Boulton & Watt company became Scotland's largest engineering firm.
James Watt conducted many experiments with steam energy throughout his life and came up with many solutions that improved steam engines. Thanks to James Watt's experiments with steam, the energy used to evaporate water was reduced by about 75 percent. Newcomen engines used a single piston, most of the energy was consumed by the piston. James Watt saw that he could reduce the energy cost by increasing the number of pistons to two. The steam engine he developed had two pistons, hot and cold. This arrangement, called the Watt coupling, made it possible to calculate the mechanical motion curve of two-piston structures.
The James Watt steam engine showed its most successful results in the field of transportation. Special mechanisms developed by James Watt made it possible for steam energy to turn wheels. This groundbreaking system in transportation has now put a new type of energy into the service of humanity, in addition to human or animal power, to carry cargo. With James Watt, the energy efficiency of steam engines increased and their usage areas expanded, and their commercial value began to increase. In the second half of the 1770s, new engineering companies began to be established in Scotland and steam engine production increased significantly. These developments were met with enthusiasm in England, especially in London. The fact that steam engines, whose usage area was limited to mines until that day, had successful results in many areas related to mechanics did not escape the attention of British business circles. In this process, the demands for James Watt steam engines increased in many areas, especially in food. James Watt steam engines were located in most of the flour, paper, sugar and cotton factories established in England.
James Watt's most important invention was undoubtedly the steam engine. Today, the steam engine, which is James Watt's best-known invention, has become almost identical to the name James Watt. “Who is the inventor of the steam engine?” Almost everyone can answer the question of James Watt. Considered the father of the modern steam engine, James Watt did not actually invent the steam engine from scratch. However, with the innovations it brought, it gave the steam engine its modern form, which continues to be used today. Thanks to this transformation, the steam engine took its place in the production line not only in mining but also in many industrial areas. In the next period, steam engines were also used in transportation vehicles such as cars, buses and planes. But James Watt's inventions were not limited to the steam engine. In the field of printing technologies, James Watt developed mechanical tools that allow untouched copying of drawings. These tools, which are considered to be the ancestors of the photocopier, moved the ink to the paper with mechanical methods and enabled the drawings to be copied.
Thanks to his inventions, James Watt had made a great fortune as early as the 1800s. He retired during this period and spent all his time working on standardizing power measurement. He measured the work done by a horse in a given time and defined it as "horsepower". James Watt, who died on August 25, 1819, enabled the industrial revolution to progress rapidly in Europe, especially in England, thanks to the inventions he left behind.