Watt
Watt names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Watt JAMES, a British inventor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JAMES, a British inventor; born in Greenock, Scotland, Jan. 19, 1736. His father was a merchant and magistrate of Greenock, and James received a good education in its public schools. Having determined to adopt the trade of mathematical instrument maker, he went to London (1754) to learn the art, but ill-health compelled him to return after only a year's apprenticeship. Shortly after his return he endeavored to establish himself in Glasgow. The corporation objecting, he was appointed in 1757 mathematical instrument maker to the university, and resided within its walls till 1763, when he removed into the town. From this time till 1774 he acted as a civil engineer-made several surveys for canals and harbors, and some of his plans were afterward carried into execution. It was during this period that he conceived and gave shape to his im provements on the steam engine, which have rendered James Watt's name famous. To give his inventions practical form he associated himself in the year 1774 with Matthew Boulton, the firm of Boulton & Watt having their works at Soho, Birmingham. He retired from business in 1800. Watt was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and member of the National Institute of France. He was twice married, and was survived by one son, who carried on the establishment at Soho in partnership with a son of Mr. Boulton. Besides im- JAMES WATT proving the steam engine, Watt invented or improved a variety of mechanical appliances, including a lettercopying press. He was a man of high mental powers generally, and possessed a wide and varied knowledge of literature and science. He died in Heathfield, Staffordshire, Aug. 25, 1819.
Watt the name of the electrical unit of activity or rate of doing work
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the name of the electrical unit of activity or rate of doing work. It is measured by the product of the voltage or electromotive force of the source into the current supplied. Thus a dynamo which is yielding 30 amperes at a voltage of 100 is working with an activity of 3,000 watts. The watt is equal to 0.735 foot-pound per second; so that one horse power per second is equal to 746 watts. It is customary to use the kilowatt as the practical unit. It is equal to 1,000 watts or 1.2 horse power per second.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 sketch of Watt's life still reads accurately, though modern writers are careful to say he did not invent the steam engine but transformed Newcomen's: his separate condenser was conceived in 1765 and patented in 1769. His Heathfield attic workshop, left untouched at his death in 1819, was removed intact to the Science Museum in London in the 1920s and is still displayed there. The unit has moved further. Collier's defined the watt through volts and amperes and gave the confused equivalence "one horse power per second is equal to 746 watts"; the watt is now an SI derived unit, one joule per second, and since the redefinition of the SI that took effect in 2019 it rests on fixed numerical values for the Planck constant and the second rather than on any electrical apparatus. Where Collier's thought the kilowatt the natural practical unit, national power stations and grids are now reckoned in gigawatts and world energy use in terawatts.
Written for this edition, 2026.