WATTERSON
2057
WATTS
an elastic vapor, it would expand and rush into a vacuum. The separate condenser would take care of the exhaust, and the steam-jacket keep the cylinder hot. I rushed back to the university and broke in upon Dr. Robison, lecturer on chemistry and cried: 'You needna fash yoursel' aboot that ony more, mon; you shall have steam boiling hot, in a boiling hot cylinder, and not waste a particle.' " The stationary steam-engine had been born in James Watt's brain — a flash of genius, it has been called. Such it was, but it was the result of profound knowledge, intense application and patience.
Now, at this stage, James Watt's skilful fingers came again to the service of his head. The practical difficulties were enormous. Money and powerful friends were forthcoming, but the necessary mecnanical skill for making all the parts true did not exist. The inventor had, literally, to invent other machines and to train workmen. It was ten years before the steam-engine was brought to perfection and protected by patents. Even then people refused to believe that it wa,s anything more than a steam-pump limited to pumping water out of mines and for use in water-works. Sir Richard Arkwright was one of the first to set the stationary engine to the task of driving the machinery of his cotton-factory. During the next 30 years the engine was brought to perfection and applied to every practical use. The steam-gauge and governor were added. The inventor's partner in manufacturing engines was Matthew Boulton of Birmingham. Their sons succeeded them in business.
At 64 James Watt, haying, as he said, "a sufficient fortune," retired to the country and spent nearly 20 years as an experimental philosopher and physicist, — in his many interests and actiyities resembling our own Benjamin Franklin. "What is life without a hobby to ride?" he is quoted as saying. He always had some scientific hobby to engage his inquiring mind. Now it was the composition of water, now an illuminating gas; again, a uniform system of weights and measures or the fertilizing of his broad farm-lands. At the very last he perfected a machine for copying statuaiy, presenting antique busts to his friends "from Jamie Watt, a promising young artist just entering his 83d year." With the eagerness of a boy he experimented in his laboratory on his rural estate near Birmingham, "wearing out my life, not rusting," until he fell asleep on the ipth of August, 1819. A monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey. The poet Wordsworth calls Watt "in the magnitude and universality of his genius the most extraordinary man England ever produced. He never sought display, but was content to work in that quietness and humility in which all that
was truly great and good was ever done." See Life of James Watt by Andrew Carnegie Wat'terson, Henry, American journalist and Democratic politician, was born at Washington, D. C. Feb. 16, 1840, and was educated by private tutors. Early in his career he took to journalism and at Nashville, Tenn., edited T he Republican Banner. During the Civil War he served on the staff of the Confederate army and was chief of scouts under Gen. Joe Johnston. He subsequently settled at Louisville, Ky., where he founded and has since edited The Courier-Journal, which he has made one of the foremost Democrat newspapers. :During 1875—7 he was a member of Congress, but, though repeatedly urged, he has uniformly declined office, and has contented himself with presiding over conventions and supporting his Democratic friends and allies in their political contests. At Chicago, in 1893, he delivered the dedicatory oration at the opening of the Columbian Exposition. In 1896 he declined the offer of a nomination for President on the National (gold) Democratic ticket. He has published a History of the Spanish-American War, and edited Oddities of Southern Life and Character.
Watts, George Frederick, R. A., a noted English artist, sculptor, portrait-painter and delineator of historical subjects, was born at London on Feb. 23, 1817. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837, his early pictures winning attention by their colossal size as well as by their artistic excellence and beauty of coloring. His chief exhibits have been 52. George and the Dragon, Fata Morgana, Life's Allusions, Endymion^ Love and Death, The Good Samaritan, Hope, Sir Galahad, Orpheus and Eury-dice, with portraits of Tennyson, Browning, Gladstone, Lord Lytton, Matthew Arnold, Holman Hunt, Swinburne, Dean Stanley, Garibaldi and John Stuart Mill. L^ve and Life was later presented to the lited States, and is in the White House. In 1867 Watts was elected an academician. He died at London on July i, 1904.
Watts, Isaac, an English hymn-writer, was born at Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have written hymns for his mother when seven or eight years old. He became a clergyman, and was pastor of Mark Lane Congregational Church, London, for a number of years, having an assistant and preaching only occasionally, as his
HENRY WATTERSON.
