Tuesday 5th February 2019 at  7pm

Speaker: Dr. Jim Andrew

In 2019 we shall be commemorating the life of James Watt who died in Birmingham 200 years ago on 25th August 1819.

Watt was born in 1736 and grew up in Greenock, west of Glasgow where he trained as an instrument maker.  In about 1763 he was asked to repair a small Newcomen steam engine.  He did and eventually went on to become the greatest steam engineer of his time.  In 1774 Watt arrived in Birmingham where in partnership with Matthew Boulton, he dominated the designing of powerful steam engines for some twenty years.  But why was Watt attracted to Birmingham, the town and its folks? We shall find out about the advantages offered to Watt by Birmingham Society and the many innovations that brought him lasting fame.

Jim Andrew is a mechanical engineer who worked in industry and as a pollution inspector with Birmingham Council before moving to senior staff at the City’s Museum of Science & Industry in 1974.  His PhD was awarded in 1991 for research on Boulton and Watt and the 1779 engine in the Museum which James Watt designed.  His research interests have ranged across many aspects of technology and the technical collections held in the Birmingham Museums.

 

This lecture will take place at the BMI.

“The Lunar Society’s Welcome to a Scottish Inventor”

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