The museum is known the world over for its remarkable collection recording scientific, engineering, medical and technological achievements through several hundred years of change.
James Watt – 'Hero' of the Industrial Revolution
The museum's latest permanent display is James Watt and our world. This free exhibition charts the life and work of the first 'hero' of the British Industrial Revolution.
James Watt was born in Greenock, Scotland, on 19th January 1736. After initially being educated by his mother, he went to the local grammar school. From 1757 to 1763 he was mathematical instrument maker to the University of Glasgow. Watt also worked on a number of engineering projects, such as the deepening of the Forth and Clyde Rivers.
Today, James Watt is regarded as the father of the Industrial Revolution. His contemporaries certainly thought so. His innovative steam engines were used in many engineering situations including textile mills, breweries and coal mines. As a result production increased and Britain prospered.
Watt was regarded as a national hero, and was the first engineer to be commemorated with a statue in Westminster Abbey. Likened by many to Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare, Watt has often been described as ’the greatest benefactor of the human race’.
James Watt and our world – Permanent Exhibition
On his death, in 1819, Watt's workshop was sealed up and preserved almost as a shrine. It became a site of pilgrimage for engineers and historians, and Watt's biographer, J. P. Muirhead, said the ‘garret and all its mysterious contents…seemed still to breathe of the spirit that once gave them life and energy’.
In 1924 the entire workshop, together with more than 6,000 items invented or used by Watt, were taken to the Science Museum and reassembled exactly as it was in Watt's day. Previously, visitors had a limited view of the workshop, but now they can step inside to see its contents, including tools, note books and working papers.
On display is a circular saw, reputed to be the world's oldest, as well as the oldest surviving sheets of sandpaper. Also on show are parts for musical instruments and a device for minting and standardising coins developed for the Royal Mint. The display includes a roller press used to copy papers, so even the photocopier grew from one of Watt's ideas.
The Separate Condenser – The Simple Brass Cylinder that Changed the World
One of the most important items on display is a 1765 model of Watt's first separate condenser. In 1763 Watt was asked to repair a model of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine. Recognising certain faults in the working of the engine, Watt went on to develop the separate condenser, probably the most important innovation in the history of steam engineering.
This model has an interesting history. It lay hidden away under Watt's workbench until its discovery in the 1960s. At first the purpose of this simple brass cylinder was not recognised, but subsequent research has shown its importance in the development of steam-powered industry.
The exhibition is accompanied by a new display area featuring a number of items not previously shown before, together with multimedia presentations highlighting key points in Watt's career. Watt could be regarded as the world's first 'scientific entrepreneur'. He was quick to see where science and innovation could be harnessed to make money, and the display explores his very successful long-term partnership with entrepreneur Matthew Boulton.
James Watt and our world is curated by Ben Russell, Curator of Mechanical Engineering and Andrew Nahum, Principal Curator of Technology & Engineering, with support from The DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Helen and Geoffrey de Freitas Charitable Trust. Watt's workshop will be on permanent display from 23 March 2011, and further information is available from the Science Museum.
Source:
- The Science Museum, London.
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
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