Watt’s contribution and the laws he invented;
Watt (1736-1819)
Watt is the world-recognized inventor of the steam engine. No laws were discovered!
His creative spirit, superhuman talents and unremitting research have left precious spiritual and material wealth for future generations. The steam engine improved and invented by Watt was a huge contribution to modern science and production and had epoch-making significance. It led to the rise of the first industrial technological revolution and greatly promoted the development of social productivity.
Watt was born in Greenock, a small town near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1736. His father was an experienced carpenter, and his grandfather and uncle were both mechanical craftsmen. As a boy, Watt did not receive a complete formal education due to his poor family and frail health. He attended Greenock Grammar School, where he excelled in mathematics, but dropped out before graduating. However, under the guidance of his parents, he always insisted on self-study and became interested in physics and mathematics very early. Watt began studying geometry at the age of six, and by the age of fifteen he had completed books such as "Principles of Physics". He often repaired and made cranes, tackles and some navigational equipment by himself. In 1753, Watt went to Glasgow to work as an apprentice. Because his income was too low to maintain his livelihood, he went to work as an apprentice in an instrument repair shop in London the next year. With his diligence and studiousness, he quickly learned to make more difficult instruments. But the heavy labor and hard life damaged his health, and after a year, he had to go home to recuperate. One year of apprenticeship made him suffer a lot, and also allowed him to develop exquisite craftsmanship and cultivate his tenacious personality.
In 1756, when his health improved slightly, Watt once again embarked on a rough road to Glasgow. He wanted to be an instrument builder, but because his skills were not up to par, the guild at the time did not allow him. Fortunately, Watt's talent attracted the attention of Professor Teike at the University of Glasgow. Under his introduction, Watt entered the University of Glasgow and worked as a teaching instrument worker. The school had relatively complete instruments and equipment at the time, which enabled Watt to learn about advanced technology and broaden his horizons when repairing instruments. At this time, he developed a strong interest in steam-powered machinery and began to collect relevant information. He also learned Italian and German for this purpose. In college, he met chemists Joseph Blake and John Robinson. Watt learned a lot of scientific theoretical knowledge from them. In 1764, Watt married his cousin Margaret Miller.
In 1764, the school asked Watt to repair a Newcomen steam engine. During the repair process, Watt became familiar with the structure and principles of the steam engine, and discovered two major shortcomings of this steam engine: piston action Discontinuous and slow; low steam utilization and waste of raw materials. Later, Watt began to think about ways to improve it. Until the spring of 1765, while taking a walk, Watt thought that since the low thermal efficiency of the Newcomen steam engine was caused by the condensation of steam inside the cylinder, why couldn't the steam be condensed outside the cylinder? Watt came up with the original idea of ??using a split condenser.
After coming up with this idea, Watt designed a steam engine with a separate condenser in the same year. According to the design, there is a regulating valve connected between the condenser and the cylinder, so that they can be connected and separated. In this way, the steam after work can be introduced into the condenser outside the cylinder, and the same vacuum can be generated in the cylinder, avoiding the consumption of heat during the cooling and heating process of the cylinder. According to Watt's theoretical calculation, this new steam engine The thermal efficiency will be three times that of the Newcomen steam engine. Theoretically speaking, Watt's steam engine with a separator and condenser is obviously better than the Newcomen steam engine. However, it is necessary to turn theoretical things into practical things and turn the steam engine on the drawing into a real steam engine. , there is still a long way to go. Watt worked hard to build several steam engines, but the effect was not as good as the Newcomen steam engine. It even leaked everywhere and could not be started. Although the costly experiments left him heavily in debt, he did not shy away from the difficulties and continued the experiments. When Black learned about Watt's goal and difficult situation, he introduced Watt to a very wealthy friend of his - chemical technician Roebuck. Roebuck was a very wealthy entrepreneur at that time. He opened the first large-scale ironworks in Caron, Scotland.
Although Roebuck was nearly 50 years old at the time, he still had great enthusiasm for new inventions in science and technology. He was very impressed with the new device of Watt, who was only in his thirties at the time, and immediately signed a contract with Watt to sponsor Watt in the trial production of a new steam engine.
In more than three years starting in 1766, Watt overcame various difficulties in materials and processes, and finally produced the first prototype in 1769. That same year, Watt received his first patent in the process of revolutionizing the Newcomen steam engine for his invention of the condenser. Although the first steam engine with a condenser was successfully trial-produced, compared with the Newcomen steam engine, in addition to its significant improvement in thermal efficiency, it has not yet made substantial progress in its performance as a power machine to drive other working machines. That is to say, Watt's steam engine still cannot be used as a real power engine.
Because Watt's steam engine was still not ideal enough, its sales were not widespread. When Watt continued his exploration, Roebuck himself was on the verge of bankruptcy. He introduced Watt to his friend, engineer and entrepreneur Bolton, so that Watt could get sponsorship to continue his research work. Bolton was in his forties and a capable engineer and entrepreneur. He expressed appreciation for Watt's innovative spirit and was willing to sponsor Watt. Bolton often participated in social activities. He was one of the main members of the "Full Moon Society", a famous scientific society in the Birmingham area at that time. Most of the participants in this society are local scientists, engineers, scholars and science enthusiasts. After Bolton's introduction, Watt also joined the Full Moon Society. During the activities of the Full Moon Society, Watt gained a better understanding of the gas chemistry and thermochemistry that people were concerned about at that time due to his interactions with chemists Priestley and others, which laid the foundation for his later participation in the debate on the chemical composition of water. Base. More importantly, the activities of the Full Moon Society enabled Watt to further increase his scientific knowledge and activate his scientific thinking.
Watt has received strong support in terms of funds, equipment, materials, etc. since its cooperation with Bolton. Watt produced two more steam engines with separate condensers. Since there was no significant improvement, these two steam engines did not receive social attention. These two steam engines cost a lot of money and brought Bolton to the brink of bankruptcy, but he still provided generous sponsorship to Watt. With his support, Watt continued his research with indomitable perseverance. After trial-producing a steam engine prototype with a separate condenser in 1769, Watt had realized that low thermal efficiency was no longer the main drawback of his steam engine, but that the piston could only make back-and-forth linear motion was its fundamental limitation. In 1781, Watt was still participating in the activities of the Full Moon Society. Perhaps at the gathering, members mentioned that Uranus discovered by the astronomer Herschel that year and the resulting circular motion of the planet around the sun inspired him. Perhaps it was the clock. He was inspired by the circular motion of the gears. He thought that by changing the linear motion of the piston back and forth into a rotating circular motion, power could be transmitted to any working machine. In the same year, he developed a gear linkage called the "Sun and Planet", which finally transformed the back-and-forth linear motion of the piston into the rotational motion of the gear. In order to increase the inertia of the rotation axis of the wheel shaft and thereby make the circular motion more uniform, Watt also installed a fire flywheel on the wheel shaft. Because of this major innovation in traditional mechanisms, Watt's steam engine truly became a power machine that can drive all work and life. At the end of 1781, Watt obtained his second patent for the invention of a mechanical linkage with gears and pull rods.
Because this type of steam engine adds a wheel shaft and a flywheel, the steam engine consumes a lot of energy when converting the back-and-forth linear motion of the piston into the rotational motion of the wheel shaft. In this way, the efficiency of the steam engine is not very high and the power is not very great. In order to further improve the efficiency of the steam engine and increase the efficiency of the steam engine, Watt studied the cylinder itself after inventing the gear linkage. He found that although he changed the internal condensation of the Newcomen steam engine into external condensation, the steam engine's Thermal efficiency was significantly improved, but the stroke process of steam pushing the piston in his steam engine was no different from that in the Newcomen steam engine. The steam in both is a single motion, entering at one end and coming out at the other. He thought that if steam could enter and exit from both ends, the steam could push the piston upward as well as downward. Then, his efficiency can be doubled. In 1782, Watt based on this idea, trial-produced a new cylinder with a two-way device. Watt received his third patent.
The original single cylinder device was converted into a two-way cylinder, and the steam introduced into the cylinder was changed from low-pressure steam to high-pressure steam for the first time. This was Watt's third leap in the process of improving the Newcomen steam engine. Through these three technological leaps, the Newcomen steam engine completely evolved into the Watt steam engine.
From the initial contact with steam technology to the successful development of Watt steam engine, Watt has gone through a difficult journey of more than 20 years. Although Watt suffered many setbacks and failures, he still persevered and never looked back, and finally completed three innovations of the Newcomen steam engine. The steam engine became more widely used and became the driving force to transform the world.
In 1784, Watt obtained his fourth patent in the process of innovating the Newcomen steam engine with a comprehensive assembly of a high-pressure steam engine with a flywheel, gear linkage and two-way device. In 1788, Watt invented the centrifugal governor and throttle valve; in 1790, he invented the cylinder indicator. At this point, Watt completed the entire process of steam engine invention.
In 1785, Watt was elected as a member of the Royal Society. In 1814, he was admitted as a foreign member of the French Society of Scientists.
After 1790, generous patent taxes made Watt a very wealthy celebrity. Watt died at his home in Heathfield on August 5, 1819, and his remains were buried in a church in the suburb of Handwalls.
Watt lived in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, so he inevitably had the limitations of the times and class. He once blocked the invention and promotion of double-cylinder steam engines and high-pressure steam engines, and also laughed at other people's efforts to use steam engines to drive vehicles.
Watt made an indelible and important contribution to the popularization and use of steam engines and effectively promoted the progress of society. Engels wrote in "Dialectics of Nature": "The steam engine is the first truly international invention... Watt added a separate condenser, which brought the steam engine in principle to its current level. "In order to commemorate this great inventor, later generations set the unit of power as "Watt".
In 1769, based on a large number of experiments and numerous failures, Watt finally made a single-acting steam engine and obtained the patent for the first steam engine.
In 1757, Watt went to Glasgow University to work as a repairman of teaching instruments. There are complete experimental facilities and various instruments, as well as many famous scholars and experts, which provide Watt with extremely favorable conditions. The school also established an experimental workshop specifically for him. In 1769, based on extensive experiments and numerous failures, Watt finally made a single-acting steam engine and obtained the patent for the first steam engine. In 1782, Watt successfully developed a new two-way steam engine, which could be widely used in various machines; in 1788, the British government officially granted Watt a patent certificate for manufacturing steam engines; from 1775 to 1800, Watt and Bolton worked together. The Soho Factory established in 1878 produced 183 steam engines, all of which were used in the textile, metallurgical and mining industries. By the 1830s, steam engines were introduced to the world, and human society has since entered the "Steam Age". The inventor who benefited mankind——Watt will always be admired by future generations