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 ...

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 ...

James Watt’s steam engine had an enormous influence on the Industrial Revolution and the development of the modern world. The popular misconception is that the Scottish engineer, born in 1736 ...

James Watt has been called one of the most influential people in history, and his role in improving the steam engine to make it the primary force behind the industrial revolution is beyond dispute.

The steam engine may seem like a relic of the past. But without this game-changing invention, the modern world would be a much different place.

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 ...

Watt's genius was not limited to his steam engine: he invented a raft of other things, including a centrifugal governor to limit the speed of his engines, sun-and-planet gears as an alternative to ...

The engine was built around the time of Watt's death in 1819 and it was moved to the site in 1839-40. James Watt's inventions meant that the steam engine became much more economical to use and ...

When Scottish inventor James Watt came up with a new steam engine design in 1765 that required 75 per cent less coal to operate than its predecessor, many people logically presumed that coal ...

History proclaims that James Watt’s reinvention of the (Thomas) Newcomen steam engine with Matthew Boulton launched the Industrial Revolution and transformed the world. But history politely ...

The Watt steam engine and its successors powered the first 100 years of the industrial revolution. And the idea behind them, that heat derived from a fossil fuel could be turned into mechanical ...