James Watt | BJU Press Summer History eCamp

James Watt

One invention that changed life for many people in America was built in England in 1712. There an inventor heated water until it became steam and then cooled it quickly to make the engine run. At first the steam engine could only pump water from the bottom of deep mines.

More than fifty years after the steam engine was first used, twenty-seven-year-old James
Watt was busy in his shop. A steam engine had broken down, and Watt had been asked to fix it. The engine broke often. When it did work, it lost steam quickly. And it took huge amounts of coal to keep the engine hot. “There must be a way to make this engine
work better,” Watt thought.

Encouraged by his family and friends, Watt began work on a better steam engine. He found a way to save steam and coal by cooling the steam in a separate tube, or cylinder.
After ten years of hard work, James Watt’s better steam engine was ready to use. In five more years, Watt built almost three hundred new steam engines.

Throughout the rest of his life, James Watt thought of new ways to make his steam engine better. When he died in 1819, the steam engine was an important tool for many businesses in England. Before this invention, men had used their own muscle
power or the power of animals, wind, or water to get work done. Now one steam engine could do the work of one hundred horses.