Editing James Watt (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early life and education ===
James Watt was born on 19 January 1736 in [[Greenock]], [[Renfrewshire (historic)|Renfrewshire]], the eldest of the five surviving children of Agnes Muirhead (1703–1755) and James Watt (1698–1782).<ref name=":0">{{cite ODNB|id=28880|title=Watt, James (1736–1819)|orig-year=2004|year=2013|last=Tann|first=Jennifer}}</ref> Watt was baptised on 25 January 1736 at [[Old West Kirk]], in Greenock.<ref name=nrs>{{cite web|url=https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-a-z/watt-james |title=Hall of Fame A-Z: James Watt (1736-1819) |website=National Records of Scotland |date=31 May 2013 |access-date=17 September 2024}}</ref>  His mother came from a distinguished family, was well educated and said to be of forceful character, while his father was a [[shipwright]], ship owner and contractor, and served as the Greenock's [[Baillie|chief baillie]] in 1751.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24829|title=The life of James Watt: with selections from his correspondence|last=Muirhead|first=James Patrick|publisher=John Murray|year=1859|edition=2|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24829/page/n35 10]}}</ref> The Watt family's wealth came in part from Watt's father's trading in slaves and slave-produced goods.<ref>Lisa Williams, [https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/remaking-our-histories-scotland-slavery-and-empire "Scotland and Slavery"], National Galleries Scotland, 9 October 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2021.</ref> 
Watt's parents were [[Presbyterian]]s and strong [[Covenanters]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKuG-VIwID8C|title=Icons of invention: the makers of the modern world from Gutenberg to Gates|last=Klooster|first=John W.|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2009|isbn=978-0-313-34743-6|volume=1|page=30}}</ref> but despite his religious upbringing he later became a [[deist]].<ref>{{cite book|title=James Watt and the steam engine: the memorial volume prepared for the Committee of the Watt centenary commemoration at Birmingham 1919|last1=Dickinson|first1=Henry Winram|author-link1=Henry Winram Dickinson|last2=Jenkins|first2=Rhys|last3=Committee of the Watt Centenary Commemoration|publisher=Clarendon press|year=1927|page=78|quote=It is difficult to say anything as to Watt's religious belief, further than that he was a Deist.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/dictionary.html|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Freethinkers|last=McCabe|first=Joseph|year=1945|publisher=Haldeman-Julius Publications|access-date=17 August 2012|quote=He made such improvement in the crude steam-engine that had been invented before his time that he is usually described as the inventor. "His many and most valuable inventions must always place him among the leading benefactors of mankind," says the account of him in the ''Dictionary of National Biography''. He was an accomplished man. He knew Greek, Latin, French, German and Italian and was very friendly with the great freethinking French scientists. Andrew Carnegie has written a life of him and describes him as a deist who never went to church.}}</ref> Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt (1642–1734), was a teacher of mathematics, surveying and navigation<ref name=":0" /> and [[baillie]] to the [[Baron of Cartsburn]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24829|title=The life of James Watt: with selections from his correspondence|last=Muirhead|first=James Patrick|publisher=John Murray|year=1859|edition=2|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24829/page/n29 4], 7}}</ref>

Initially, Watt was [[Homeschooling|educated at home]] by his mother, later going on to attend Greenock Grammar School. There he exhibited an aptitude for [[mathematics]], while [[Latin]] and [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] failed to interest him.

Watt is said to have suffered prolonged bouts of ill-health as a child and from frequent headaches all his life.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.173811/2015.173811.Lives-Of-The-Engineers#page/n21/mode/2up|title=Lives of the Engineers|last1=Smiles|first1=Samuel|date=1904|publisher=John Murray|edition=Popular|location=London|page=12|access-date=9 December 2017}}</ref>

After leaving school, Watt worked in the workshops of his father's businesses, demonstrating considerable dexterity and skill in creating engineering models. After his father suffered unsuccessful business ventures, Watt left Greenock to seek employment in [[Glasgow]] as a [[Measuring instrument|mathematical instrument maker]].<ref name=":0" />

[[File:James-watt-1736-1819-engineer-inventor-of-the-stea.jpg|thumb|James Watt by [[John Partridge (artist)|John Partridge]], after Sir [[William Beechey]] (1806)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Annan|first1=Thomas|title=Illustrated catalogue of the exhibition of portraits on loan in the new galleries of art, Corporation buildings, Sauchiehall Street|date=1868|publisher=Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum|location=Glasgow|page=90|url=https://archive.org/stream/illustratedcatal00anna#page/90/mode/2up/search/watt|access-date=4 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=James Watt, 1736 – 1819. Engineer, inventor of the steam engine|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/4074/james-watt-1736-1819-engineer-inventor-steam-engine|website=Scottish National Portrait Gallery|access-date=5 December 2017}}</ref>]]
[[File:Bust of James Watt.JPG|thumb|Bust of Watt in the [[Scottish National Portrait Gallery]]]]

When he was 18, Watt's mother died and his father's health began to fail. Watt travelled to [[London]] and was able to obtain a period of training as an instrument maker for a year (1755–56), then returned to Scotland, settling in the major commercial city of [[Glasgow]], intent on setting up his own instrument-making business. He was still very young and, having not had a full [[apprenticeship]], did not have the usual connections via a former master to establish himself as a [[journeyman]] instrument maker.

Watt was saved from this impasse by the arrival from Jamaica of [[List of astronomical instruments|astronomical instruments]] bequeathed by [[Alexander MacFarlane (judge)|Alexander MacFarlane]] to the [[University of Glasgow]] – instruments that required expert attention.<ref>Marshall (1925), Chapter 3.</ref> Watt restored them to working order and was [[Remuneration|remunerated]]. These instruments were eventually installed in the [[Macfarlane Observatory]]. Subsequently, three professors offered him the opportunity to set up a small workshop within the university. It was initiated in 1757 and two of the professors, the [[physicist]] and [[chemist]] [[Joseph Black]] as well as the famed economist [[Adam Smith]], became Watt's friends.<ref>
{{cite book
|title=Partners in Science: Letters of James Watt and Joseph Black
 |year=1970
 |url=https://archive.org/details/partnersinscienc0000robi
 |url-access=registration
 |last1=Robinson
 |first1= Eric
|last2=McKie
 |first2= Doublas
|location= Cambridge, Massachusetts
}}
</ref>

At first, he worked on maintaining and repairing scientific instruments used in the university, helping with demonstrations, and expanding the production of [[quadrant (instrument)|quadrants]]. He made and repaired brass [[octant (instrument)|reflecting quadrants]], [[parallel rulers]], [[Weighing scale|scales]], parts for [[telescope]]s, and [[barometer]]s, among other things.

Biographers such as [[Samuel Smiles]] assert that Watt struggled to establish himself in Glasgow due to opposition from the [[Trades House]], but this has been disputed by other historians, such as [[iarchive:historyofhammerm00lums/page/n8|Harry Lumsden]]. The records from this period are fragmentary, but while it is clear that Watt encountered opposition, he was nevertheless able to work and trade as a skilled [[Metalworking|metal worker]], suggesting that the [[Incorporated Trades of Edinburgh|Incorporation of Hammermen]] were satisfied that he met their requirements for membership, or that Watt managed to avoid their outright opposition.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhammerm00lums|title=History of the Hammermen of Glasgow; a study typical of Scottish craft life and organisation|last=Lumsden|first=Harry|publisher=A. Gardner|year=1912|location=Paisley|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofhammerm00lums/page/394 394]–404}}</ref>

In 1759, he formed a partnership with John Craig, an architect and businessman, to manufacture and sell a line of products including musical instruments and toys. This partnership lasted for the next six years, and employed up to 16 workers. Craig died in 1765. One employee, Alex Gardner, eventually took over the business, which lasted into the 20th century.<ref>Hills, vol. 1, pp. 103–15.</ref>

In 1764, Watt married his cousin Margaret (Peggy) Miller, with whom he had 5 children, 2 of whom lived to adulthood: [[James Watt Jr.|James Jr.]] (1769–1848) and Margaret (1767–1796). His wife died in childbirth in 1773. In 1777, he married again, to Ann MacGregor, daughter of a Glasgow [[dye]]-maker, with whom he had 2 children: Gregory (1777–1804), who became a geologist and mineralogist,<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Torrens | first1 = H. S. | chapter = The geological work of Gregory Watt, his travels with William Maclure in Italy (1801–1802), and Watt's "proto-geological" map of Italy (1804) | doi = 10.1130/2006.2411(11) |title=The Origins of Geology in Italy |series=Geological Society of America | volume = 411 | pages = 179–197 | year = 2006 | isbn = 0-8137-2411-2 }}</ref> and Janet (1779–1794). Ann died in 1832.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZcsXTQntrkC&pg=PA1045|title=The Lunar Men: The Inventors of the Modern World 1730–1810|last=Uglow|first=Jenny|date=2011|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-26667-8|language=en}}</ref> Between 1777 and 1790 he lived in Regent Place, [[Birmingham]].