James Watt

James Watt FRS FRSE (30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist whose Watt steam engine, an improvement of the Newcomen steam engine, was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.

While working as an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow, Watt became interested in the technology of steam engines. He realised that contemporary engine designs wasted a great deal of energy by repeatedly cooling and reheating the cylinder. Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser, which avoided this waste of energy and radically improved the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of steam engines. Eventually he adapted his engine to produce rotary motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water.

Watt attempted to commercialise his invention, but experienced great financial difficulties until he entered a partnership with Matthew Boulton in 1775. The new firm of Boulton and Watt was eventually highly successful and Watt became a wealthy man. In his retirement, Watt continued to develop new inventions though none was as significant as his steam engine work. He died in 1819 at the age of 83.

James Watt (loyalist)

James Watt also known as Tonto (born 21 September 1952) is a former Northern Irish loyalist who was the top bomb maker for the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in the mid-1970s. In 1978, Watt was convicted and given nine separate life sentences for murder and attempted murder. These included bombings which killed a ten-year-old boy and two teenagers in two attacks carried out in April 1977 as a part of a UVF bombing campaign against republicans.

Following his release from prison in 1989 he left the organisation and in 1995 became a preacher having embraced Born-again Christianity while serving his sentence.

Ulster Volunteer Force

Watt was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 21 September 1952 and grew up in a Protestant family in Benview Park off the loyalist Ballysillan Road in North Belfast. His father worked as a park ranger at the Bone Hill playing fields. Employed as a fitter having left school to earn his apprenticeship in the trade, Watt joined the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1973 because, in his words, "the IRA were blowing up my city". He later told police that it had been "the right thing to do"; His role in the UVF Belfast Brigade was that of a bomb maker; his skills in that field ensured that by 1976 he was much in demand for operations that required the use of explosives. The UVF and the other loyalist paramilitary organisations lacked the expertise as regards bombmaking and therefore lagged considerably behind the IRA; nevertheless Watt achieved a reputation within the ranks as the UVF's top bomb maker.

James Watt (surgeon)

Sir James Watt KBE FRCS (19 August 1914 - 28 December 2009) was a British surgeon, Medical Director-General of the Royal Navy, 1972–1977

He was born in Morpeth, Northumberland and was educated at the King Edward VI School there, before entering Durham University, where he qualified in medicine in 1938.

He started work as a house surgeon at Ashington Hospital, Northumberland and as resident medical officer at Princess Mary Maternity Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne. When the Second World War started he joined the Royal Navy, spending most of the time in the Far East, the North Atlantic and the Pacific. When the war finished he continued his medical career at Guy's Hospital, London and the Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but then rejoined the Navy as a surgical specialist.

Posted initially to Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, he also saw service in Korea, Northern Ireland and Hong Kong. He was promoted to Consultant in Surgery in 1956 and became the first joint Professor of Naval Surgery in 1965 with the rank of Surgeon Captain. He became a Surgeon Rear-Admiral when appointed Dean of Naval Medicine and Medical Officer in charge of the Institute of Naval Medicine in 1969 and was further promoted to Surgeon Vice-Admiral when appointed Medical Director-General of the Navy. He was knighted KBE in 1975.

James Watt junior

James Watt junior (1769–1848) was a Scottish engineer, businessman and activist.

Early life

He was born on 5 February 1769, the son of James Watt by his first wife Margaret Miller, and half-brother of Gregory Watt. He was educated at Winson Green near Birmingham, by Rev. Henry Pickering. His father was unable to find a better school, though dissatisfied with his son's progress.

At age 15 Watt spent a year at the Bersham Ironworks of John Wilkinson; and then went to Geneva. There he lodged with Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure, and knew Marc-Auguste Pictet and Jean-André Deluc. Subsequently he studied German in Eisenach.

In Manchester

In 1788 Watt returned to England and a position in the textile trade in Manchester. Initially he worked at Taylor & Maxwell, makers of fustian, where Charles Taylor was a partner. Watt worked there in the counting-house. He was then employed by the Manchester radical Thomas Walker, changing jobs just before the Priestley Riots of July 1791.

The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society was just one of a number of intellectual groups in Manchester at that period: Walker, Watt, Thomas Cooper and Samuel Jackson were leaders in the discussion of liberal reform and the views of Adam Smith. Watt became secretary of the Society in 1790, with John Ferriar. At this point Watt's interests were rather broad: Jacob Joseph Winterl the Hungarian chemist, Christoph Meiners, the Dictionary of Chemistry started by James Keir.

Murder of Michael Gilbert

The murder of Michael Gilbert occurred in 2009 in the United Kingdom. His decapitated body was found in a lake in Arlesey. He had for years been kept as a slave and subjected to abuse by the Watt family, six of whom – including James Watt, the ringleader – were jailed for their role in the murder. Gilbert, who had an unstable childhood, was considered a vulnerable and naive man who was easily exploited.

After his death, reports were published by Luton Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Board (LSVAB) and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which identified failings by public services involved in Gilbert's case.

Background

Gilbert was born in 1982 into an unstable home, and spent parts of his childhood in care. In 1993 his sister accused him of having sexually assaulted her, an incident which had a significant impact on his life. He attended Halyard High School and was bullied at school, and underwent a mastectomy when he was 13. He met Watt in 1998 when they were both living in a children's home. By 2000 Gilbert had several criminal convictions and cautions, and had spent time in prison and in a Young Offenders' Institution; Watt was also well known to the police.

James Watt (disambiguation)

James Watt (1736–1819), was a Scottish engineer and inventor of a revolutionary new steam engine.

James Watt or Jim Watt may also refer to:

See also

Watt

The watt (symbol: W) is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units (SI), named after the Scottish engineer James Watt (1736–1819). The unit is defined as joule per second and can be used to express the rate of energy conversion or transfer with respect to time. It has dimensions of L²MT⁻³.

Examples

When an object's velocity is held constant at one meter per second against constant opposing force of one newton the rate at which work is done is 1 watt.

In terms of electromagnetism, one watt is the rate at which work is done when one ampere (A) of current flows through an electrical potential difference of one volt (V).

Two additional unit conversions for watt can be found using the above equation and Ohm's Law.

Where ohm () is the SI derived unit of electrical resistance.