1-158-688 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

'Watt's First Experiment', 18th century, (c1870). James Watt (1736-1819) Scottish engineer, as a boy experimenting with the tea-kettle at the dining table of his childhood home at Greenock. In the left background is his father's assistant with a client in the carpenter's shop. Watt made great improvements to the steam engine introducing, among other things, a separate condenser and the centrifugal or flyball governor. He formed a highly successful partnership with the Birmingham entrepreneur Matthew Boulton, manufacturing steam engines to power mills, mines and factories. The Standard (SI) unit of power, the Watt, is named for him. After the picture by Marcus Stone (1840-1921).