I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon... when the idea came into my mind that, as steam was an elastic body, it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush into it and might be there condensed without cooling the cylinder.
Inventors
Born in Scotland in 1736
Born in Scotland in 1736, James Watt transformed the steam engine from an inefficient mine-drainage pump into the power source that drove the Industrial Revolution. His separate condenser dramatically boosted thermal efficiency, and his partnership with Matthew Boulton commercialized the technology at scale. The SI unit of power — the watt — bears his name.
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