INVENTOR

James Watt

1736 - 1819

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James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, engineer and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which 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. At the time engineers such as John Smeaton were aware of the inefficiencies of Newcomen's engine and aimed to improve it. Watt's insight was to realise that contemporary engine designs wasted a great deal of energy by repeatedly cooling and reheating the cylinder. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. James Watt is the 5th most popular inventor, the 22nd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 12th in 2019) and the most popular British Inventor.

James watt is most famous for inventing the steam engine.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, James Watt ranks 5 out of 426. Before him are Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Johannes Gutenberg. After him are Karl Benz, Elon Musk, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Henry Ford, Louis Braille, and Charles Babbage.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1736, James Watt ranks 1. After him are Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Rama I, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, James Macpherson, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Rudolf Erich Raspe, Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Among people deceased in 1819, James Watt ranks 1. After him are Charles IV of Spain, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Maria Luisa of Parma, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia, Kamehameha I, Daniel Rutherford, August von Kotzebue, Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco, Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, and Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, James Watt ranks 22 out of 8,785. Before him are Edward VI of England (1537), Edward VIII (1894), George III of the United Kingdom (1738), Lady Jane Grey (1537), Winston Churchill (1874), and Charles II of England (1630). After him are Anne, Queen of Great Britain (1665), Stephen Hawking (1942), John, King of England (1166), Richard III of England (1452), John Locke (1632), and Ada Lovelace (1815).

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Among INVENTORS In United Kingdom

Among inventors born in United Kingdom, James Watt ranks 1. After him are Alexander Graham Bell (1847), Charles Babbage (1791), George Stephenson (1781), John Logie Baird (1888), Thomas Newcomen (1663), John Herschel (1792), Frank Whittle (1907), Richard Trevithick (1771), John Boyd Dunlop (1840), Henry Fox Talbot (1800), and Rowland Hill (1795).

British born Inventors

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