The Life and Legend of James Watt (eBook)

Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine

David Philip Miller (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
626 Seiten
University of Pittsburgh Press (Verlag)
978-0-8229-8679-9 (ISBN)

Infos

The Life and Legend of James Watt offers 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.

Autor

David Philip Miller is emeritus professor of history of science at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a member of the International Academy of the History of Science.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.5.2019
• Reihe/Serie: Sci & Culture in the Nineteenth Century
• Verlagsort: PIttsburgh
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: 18th century engineers • 18th century inventors • Abigail Collier • Australian Academy of Humanities • David Philip Miller • engineers • Enlightenment • Famous Inventors • History of Science • International Academy of the History of Science • inventors • James Watt • Natural Philosophy • Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century • steam engine • University of New South Wales faculty • University of Pittsburgh Press
• ISBN-10: 0-8229-8679-5 / 0822986795
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8229-8679-9 / 9780822986799