Watt a legend!
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Watt a legend! David Philip Miller: The life and legend of James Watt. Collaboration, natural philosophy, and the improvement of the steam engine. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019, 422pp, US$35.00 PB Adam Lucas1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
It would be no exaggeration to say that James Watt (1736–1819) is one of the most venerated of all the inventors and entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution. Especially lionized in his country of origin, Scotland, a complex web of myths have sprung up around him, some of which are grounded in reality, and many of which were actively cultivated by his family and admirers to promote his already considerable reputation after he died. In this new monograph, David Miller draws on more than 20 years of research into the life and times of the ‘great steamer’—as Watt became known to some in the nineteenth century—to paint a compelling and often intriguing portrait of this hero of the modern age. Undertaking research on such a well-studied and iconic figure as Watt requires wading through decades of hagiographic and critical studies and re-evaluating archival material that has not always been thoroughly studied, along with evidence that has emerged more recently, and situating that research within broader historiographical and theoretical debates. Consistently erudite and generous in his judgements of those with whom he disagrees, Miller deftly marshals a diverse range of sources, including Watt’s scientific publications and archives in Birmingham and elsewhere, his professional, business and family correspondence, other relevant scientific and technical treatises, professional society records, parliamentary reports, local histories, business histories, promotional and popular media, prints and paintings, and encyclopaedia entries. The narrative is informed by astute observations concerning recent debates in the history of science and technology, and social and economic history about the relationship between mechanical trades, experimental natural philosophy, industry and empire, and priority disputes in scientific discovery. Watt’s life coincided with the height of Enlightenment thinking in Scotland, England and the Continent, a technological revolution in Britain and France, and * Adam Lucas [email protected] 1
Science and Technology Studies, Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
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political revolutions in the Americas and Europe. A taste of this dynamism can be gleaned from Watt’s extensive and impressive circle of friends and admirers; Joseph Priestley, Sir Joseph Banks, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin and William Herschel, along with French savants, including Claude-Louis Berthollet and JeanAndré De Luc. All of these characters appear with vivid intensity, along with many of Watt’s detractors, in The Life and Legend of James Watt. This biography joins more than half a dozen of Miller’s articles and his two previous books on the subject (Miller 2004, 2009). At more
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