Watt's Perfect Engine: Steam and the Age of Invention

by Ben Marsden

As the inventor of the separate-condenser steam engine―that Promethean symbol of technological innovation and industrial progress―James Watt has become synonymous with the spirit of invention, while his last name has long been immortalized as the very measurement of power. But contrary to popular belief, Watt did not single-handedly bring about the steam revolution. His "perfect engine" was as much a product of late-nineteenth-century Britain as it was of the inventor's imagination.

As one of the greatest technological developments in human history, the steam engine was a major progenitor of the Industrial Revolution, but it was also symptomatic of its many problems. Armed with a patent on the separate-condenser principle and many influential political connections, Watt and his business partner Matthew Boulton fought to maintain a twenty-five-year monopoly on steam power that stifled innovation and ruthlessly crushed competition. After tinkering with boiling kettles and struggling with leaky cylinders for years without success, Watt would eventually amass a fortune and hold sway over an industry. But, as Ben Marsden shows, he owed his astonishing rise as much to espionage and political maneuvering as to his own creativity and determination.

This is a tale of science and technology in tandem, of factory show-spaces and international espionage, of bankruptcy and brain drains, lobbying and legislation, and patents and pirates. It reveals how James Watt―warts and all―became an icon fit for an age of industry and invention.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2002

About the author

Ben Marsden is Senior Lecturer in The School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History at the University of Aberdeen. Marsden's research focuses are: science and technology in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century culture, especially the cultural history of engineering and technology in Britain; the historical relationship between science and music; engineers as authors and readers; cultural history of food.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not even start, let alone finish this book! The first sentence and the paragraph that followed were so incredibly sexist, I had to skip ahead to the next chapter. After reading the Chapter title I decided I didn't need to read the book. Astounding to find such attitudes in a book published in 2002. Wake up Rumpelstiltskin!