out delicate work. At the age of seventeen to eighteen he was sent to Glasgow to live with his mother's relatives, then to London to improve himself as a mathematical instrument maker, and with this object became an apprentice of John Morgan, philosophical instrument maker, of Finch Lane, Cornhill. He found, however, that the atmosphere of London was unsuited to one of his delicate health, and in less than a year he returned to Greenock. He did not stay there for any length of time, but went and settled in Glasgow, being then in his twenty-first year. He then endeavoured to open a shop, as mathematical instrument maker, in Glasgow, but was prevented by the Corporation of Hammermen, on the ground that he had not served a proper apprenticeship. It was at this juncture that one of his school friendships stood him in good stead. Watt had for his most intimate schoolfellow Andrew Anderson, whose elder brother, John Anderson (1726–1796) [q. v.], was professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow University. The heads of the university now came to Watt's assistance by appointing him mathematical instrument maker to the university, and by allowing him to establish a workshop within its precincts. Here Watt continued to work and to improve himself in various ways, and here he made the acquaintance of many eminent men, such as Joseph Black [q. v.], the discoverer of latent heat; Adam Smith [q. v.]; and John Robison [q. v.], professor of natural philosophy. Here also, in 1764 (when Watt was in his twenty-eighth year), occurred the well-known incident of the repair of the model of a Newcomen fire (steam) engine, belonging to the university, which had never acted properly, although it had been sent to London to be put in order by the celebrated mathematical instrument maker, Sisson. The poor performance of this model fixed Watt's thoughts on the question of the economy of steam, and laid the foundation of his first and greatest invention. Watt prosecuted this invention so far as his limited means would admit, but nothing on a working scale seems to have been done, until he entered into an arrangement with John Roebuck [q. v.], the founder of the Carron Works, to take a share in the invention, and an engine was made at Kinneil, near Linlithgow. But Roebuck fell into difficulties, and this engine does not seem to have excited much attention; nor did the invention develop in the manner that might have been expected.
Moreover, Watt became largely employed in making surveys and reports, in connection with canals, rivers, and harbours. He appears to have succeeded Smeaton in the position of engineering adviser to the Carron Foundry. Among the last of his engineering works of this character were an improvement of the harbour of his native place, Greenock, and a provision of water-works for that town. In 1768 Dr. Small introduced Watt to Matthew Boulton [q. v.], the founder of the Soho Engineering Works, near Birmingham. In 1769 Watt's invention was patented. In 1772 Roebuck failed, and Boulton offered to take a two-thirds share in Watt's engine patent, in lieu of a debt of 1,200l. In May 1774 Watt, discontented with his surveying and other work in Scotland, migrated to Birmingham, and early in 1775, being then thirty-eight or thirty-nine, he entered into partnership with Boulton at the Soho Works.
In 1786 Watt accompanied Boulton to Paris to consider proposals for the erection of steam engines in that country under an exclusive patent. Watt declined the French government's offer on the ground that the plan was contrary to England's interests. Among the French men of science who welcomed Watt with enthusiasm on the occasion was Berthollet, who communicated to Watt his newly discovered method of bleaching. It was through Watt that the new method was introduced into this country.
Watt retired from the firm of Boulton & Watt in 1800, Matthew Boulton going out at the same time, leaving the business to their sons, James Watt, junior, and Matthew Robison Boulton. After his retirement from Soho James Watt pursued at his residence, Heathfield Hall, near Birmingham, various inventions in the workshop which he had fitted up there. He also continued his interest in Greenock, and gave to this town a library in 1816. In 1819, on 25 Aug., Watt died at Heathfield, in his eighty-fourth year, and was buried in St. Mary's Church at Handsworth (now a suburb of Birmingham).
Watt married, in 1763, his cousin, Margaret Miller of Glasgow, who bore him two sons and two daughters. This lady died in childbirth in 1773. It would appear that one son and a daughter died in Watt's lifetime; the other son, James, is noticed below. In 1775 Watt married his second wife, Ann Macgregor, who survived him some thirteen years, dying in 1832. He had by her a son Gregory, who appears to have been a man of great ability in literary as well as in scientific pursuits. To Watt's great and enduring grief this son died of consumption in 1804, at the age of twenty-seven. There was also a daughter of the second marriage.
Most persons, of good standing and gene-
