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James Watt (1736-1819) was a pivotal figure of the Industrial Revolution. His career as a scientific instrument maker, inventor and engineer was developed in Scotland, his land of birth. His subsequent national and international significance as a scientist, technologist and businessman was formed in the Birmingham area. There, his partnership with Matthew Boulton and the intellectual and personal support of other members of the Lunar Society network, such as Erasmus Darwin, James Keir, William Small and Josiah Wedgwood, enabled him to translate his improvements in steam technology into efficient machines. His pumping and rotative steam engines represent a summit of technological achievement in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.This is the traditional picture of James Watt. After his death, his surviving son, James Watt junior projected his father's image through commissioning sculptures, medals, paintings and biographies which celebrated his reputation as a 'great man' of the Industrial Revolution. In popular historical understanding Watt has also become a hero of modernity, but the context in which he operated and the roles of others in shaping his ideas have been downplayed. This book explores new aspects of his work and evaluates him in his locational, family, social and intellectual contexts.

Engineers --- Steam engineering --- History. --- Watt, James, --- innovation --- enlightenment --- engineer --- inventor --- scottish --- industrialist --- steam --- industry

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An argument that the gas industry was the first integrated large-scale technological network and that it signaled a new wave of industrial innovation.In Progressive Enlightenment, Leslie Tomory examines the origins of the gaslight industry, from invention to consolidation as a large integrated urban network. Tomory argues that gas was the first integrated large-scale technological network, a designation usually given to the railways. He shows how the first gas network was constructed and stabilized through the introduction of new management structures, the use of technical controls, and the application of means to constrain the behavior of the users of gas lighting.Tomory begins by describing the contributions of pneumatic chemistry and industrial distillation to the development of gas lighting, then explores the bifurcation between the Continental and British traditions in distillation technology. He examines the establishment and consolidation of the new industry by the Birmingham firm Boulton & Watt, and describes the deployment of the network strategy by the entrepreneur Frederick Winsor. Tomory argues that the gas industry represented a new wave of technological innovation in industry because of its dependence on formal scientific research, its need for large amounts of capital, and its reliance on business organization beyond small firms and partnerships--all of which signaled a departure from the artisanal nature and limited deployment of inventions earlier in the Industrial Revolution. Gas lighting was the first important realization of the Enlightenment dream of science in the service of industry.

Gas-lighting --- Gas light fixtures industry --- Distillation --- Industrial revolution --- History. --- Research --- James Watt and Company (Birmingham, England) --- History --- Distillation -- Research -- Europe -- History. --- Gas light fixtures industry -- Great Britain -- History. --- Gas-lighting -- Great Britain -- History. --- Industrial revolution -- Europe. --- James Watt and Company (Birmingham, England). --- Chemical & Materials Engineering --- Engineering & Applied Sciences --- Chemical Engineering --- Rectification of spirits --- Boulton & Watt (Birmingham, England) --- Watt (James) and Company, Birmingham, Eng. --- Soho Manufactory --- Soho Works --- Watt and Company (Birmingham, England) --- Jacques Watt & Co. (Birmingham, England) --- Separation (Technology) --- Liquors --- Building fittings industry --- Lighting --- Research&delete& --- E-books --- SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/General --- SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Technology --- SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Science --- Gas-lighting - Great Britain - History --- Gas light fixtures industry - Great Britain - History --- Distillation - Research - Europe - History --- Industrial revolution - Europe