What seemed to finalize the impact of the Watt engine on the Industrial Revolution was his creation of the double-acting engine. Doubling the efficiency, it condensed steam both above and below ...

Watt refined the engine until it was efficient enough to run all sorts of machinery. Thanks to Watt, steam powered the first railway engine in 1804. He died in 1819 and the electrical unit, the ...

The introduction of this steam indicator in the late 1790s by James Watt had a great impact on the understanding of how the steam behaved inside the engine's cylinder and thereby enabled much more ...

The introduction of the steam indicator in the late 1790s and early 1800s by James Watt and others had a great impact on the understanding of how the steam behaved inside the engine's cylinder and ...

James Watt invented horsepower so he could sell his steam engine as the next great thing. Learn more about how it started, and how it's calculated.

Over at mises.org, Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine challenge the standard story of James Watt and the steam engine. Their conclusion: In most histories, James Watt is a heroic inventor ...

In 1763, working as an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow, James Watt was assigned to repair an early steam engine. Watt was intrigued by the idea but noted the machine's inefficiency.

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen built an engine that made use of a piston, and, beginning in 1769, James Watt improved on steam engine design with a string of patents that included innovations such as ...

Naomi Alderman tells the story of James Watt and the steam engine that nearly never got made. A breath of steam hits cold metal. It cools suddenly and becomes a drop of water. There an idea. But ...

As the father of the Watt Steam Engine, James Watt stands as an inspirational figure, and his contributions have left an indelible mark on the trajectory of industrial history. A lie can run around ...

Thomas Newcomen’s first commercially successful engine in the early 1700s wasn’t improved on by James Watt until more than 60 years later; it would take another 150 years for steam power to be ...