Book ID: CBB420592613

The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine (2019)

unapi

Miller, David Philip (Author)


University of Pittsburgh Press


Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 440
Language: English

The Life and Legend of James Wattoffers a deeper understanding of the work and character of the great eighteenth-century engineer. Stripping away layers of legend built over generations, David Philip Miller finds behind the heroic engineer a conflicted man often diffident about his achievements but also ruthless in protecting his inventions and ideas, and determined in pursuit of money and fame. A skilled and creative engineer, Watt was also a compulsive experimentalist drawn to natural philosophical inquiry, and a chemistry of heat underlay much of his work, including his steam engineering. But Watt pursued the business of natural philosophy in a way characteristic of his roots in the Scottish “improving” tradition that was in tension with Enlightenment sensibilities. As Miller demonstrates, Watt’s accomplishments relied heavily on collaborations, not always acknowledged, with business partners, employees, philosophical friends, and, not least, his wives, children, and wider family. The legend created in his later years and “afterlife” claimed too much of nineteenth-century technology for Watt, but that legend was, and remains, a powerful cultural force.

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Reviewed By

Review Jan Golinski (2019) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (pp. 382-384). unapi

Article Leslie Tomory (2020) Watt as an ‘improver’ and chemist. Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 371-376). unapi

Review Adam Lucas (2020) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 363-369). unapi

Review Larry Stewart (2020) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 357-362). unapi

Review David Philip Miller (2020) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 377-383). unapi

Review Hugh Torrens (2020) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 402-403). unapi

Review Jane Insley (2019) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 716-717). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB420592613/

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Authors & Contributors
Miller, David Philip
Hills, Richard L.
Generali, Dario
Archer-Parré, Caroline
Martin Schneider
Russell, Ben
Concepts
Steam engines; steam turbines
Industrial revolution
Engineering
Biographies
Technology
Natural philosophy
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
21st century
20th century
Places
Europe
Birmingham (England)
Scotland
Italy
France
England
Institutions
School of Milan
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
Bataafsch Genootschap te Rotterdam
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