In the historical process towards a modern industrial society, people always think that the steam engine invented by james watt has become the most important cornerstone. Without Watt's steam engine, there would be no later industrial revolution. He himself will go down in history for inventing and improving the steam engine. Just as Herman, an American scholar, recounted the contributions of Scots to the formation of the modern world in How Scots Invented the Modern World, he regarded Watt's steam engine as a material force to build the modern world. Perhaps many people don't know that Watt is Scottish. He has worked in Glasgow University in Scotland for a long time, and ranks as the pride of this university with economist Adam Smith.
Watt 1736 was born in the Scottish port city of greenock. Today, the museum in his hometown shows some tools he used to repair the steam engine. His former residence, an old house, was demolished during the industrial revolution and turned into a modern apartment, but a statue of Watt was built in the corner, and the pedestal showed that it used to be Watt's former residence. When I visited Watt's former residence here, it really took me a long time to find it. Of course, the most meaningful harvest of this trip is to find the baptism certificate of Watt one week after his birth in the local archives here. When I talked to an English historian about it, he was also very surprised and happy because he didn't collect the information himself. This baptism information can prove Watt's birth time and family background. His father James was a craftsman, and his wife Agnes Muihead was born in Watt 1736 65438+ 10/9, and was baptized in religion on 65438+125 October a week later.
For family reasons, Watt went to London as an apprentice when he was young and studied handicrafts. When I returned to Glasgow at the age of 20, I wanted to open my own handicraft shop, but since Watt was never an apprentice in this city and was not born here, I didn't get permission from the trade association. As a businessman donated a batch of astronomical instruments to the University of Glasgow, Watt got a position in the University of Glasgow, responsible for assembling and debugging these instruments, and the school gave him a separate studio. Using this studio, Watt earns some living expenses after work by selling old maps he copied and repairing various items. Of course, during this period, immersed in the scientific research atmosphere of the university, Watt studied diligently, not only learning French, Italian and German, but also paying attention to the dynamic development of science, and often consulting professors from Glasgow University and exchanging scientific questions. At that time, Professor Robieson once praised Watt, who was only 22 years old: I wanted to find a worker, but I met a philosopher.
1763, a physics professor at Glasgow University wanted Watt to repair an abandoned newcomen engine so that it could be used as an internship in physics class. After receiving the task, it took Watt more than a year to fix it. To this end, he thought hard. 1765 One day at the beginning of the year, when he was walking in the downtown park "Glasgow Greenland", he suddenly got inspiration, so he hurried back and quickly found the crux of the problem and made improvements. Therefore, it is generally said that Watt "invented" the steam engine, which should actually belong to improvement. Today, some science history books and some exhibitions also call Watt's legend "Glasgow Greenland", which is similar to the "apple tree" invented by Newton. In addition, in the process of studying Watt's invention of steam engine, historians' introduction to his specific position in Glasgow University can be described as varied and vague. For this reason, the author went to the archives of Glasgow University to find out, and finally found the list of faculty members in the Department of Physics: there are 13 people, and james watt ranks eighth. At that time, the salary of teachers was about 23 pounds per month for all staff, and Mr. Watt's salary was even more "pitiful", only 10.6 shilling, not even a pound. As for his identity, this document shows that he was a mechanic at that time. In order to repair the machine, the school spent 5.5 pounds, including the cost of purchasing materials and the labor cost paid to Watt. In the archives, you can also find a piece of paper signed by Watt, with instructions on "repairing abandoned steam engines" and Watt's own equipment purchase list. Looking at these "running accounts" written one after another 200 years ago, you will feel very cordial and meaningful.
As some historians have said, the invention of the steam engine is gratifying, but it is only the first step. How to apply it to practice is a big problem. About 1765, Professor Blake of Glasgow University introduced Watt to entrepreneur roebuck. Because roebuck knew Watt's invention and its value, he wanted to apply Watt's steam engine to pump water in his own coal mine. However, after a period of cooperation, roebuck went bankrupt due to poor management and was unable to continue to invest in financial support. At the same time, the steam engine that has been initially improved has not been fully formed. In this way, the cooperation between the two had to end. Nevertheless, roebuck's support played a vital role in Watt. Until his later years, Watt still gratefully recalled: Most of the success of my efforts should be attributed to his friendly encouragement, his concern for scientific discovery and his thinking about the application of this discovery.
Just then, another entrepreneur, Bolton, appeared. Matthew boulton is a famous entrepreneur in Birmingham. In order to expand the production scale of his own enterprise, he needs to improve the power system, and Watt's steam engine can meet his needs if it can be applied. At the invitation of Bolton, Watt came to Birmingham and finally successfully completed the application of steam engine in industrial production in 1774. This invention not only opened a new course for the British industrial revolution, but also changed the course of world history. From this, mankind got rid of the dependence on natural forces and began to use machines as the driving force of production, which greatly improved the production efficiency, quickly entered the industrial society and enhanced the well-being of mankind. It is worth mentioning that Watt applied for a patent immediately after improving the steam engine and obtained the patent right. This behavior was also interpreted by Douglas North, a Nobel Prize winner and an American economist, as the reason why the industrial revolution took the lead in Britain was because of the establishment of an effective institutional arrangement to protect property rights.
Watt lived and grew up in the18th century, which was the century of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Enlightenment in Scotland is different from the Enlightenment in France, which was born in the salon of nobles, while in Scotland at the same time, universities were the center of this Enlightenment. It is precisely because of this that a "nobody" like Watt also created a "great invention" that changed the course of world history, and the steam engine became the driving force for the formation of the modern world. In his later years, Watt also felt that all his inventions benefited from the scientific atmosphere of the university and free scientific exploration and exchange, so he donated 300 pounds behind him to set up a science award fund to support scientific research. If we knew that the monthly salary of university professors at that time was only a few pounds, we would know that such a fund was a considerable investment.