The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Greenock, 1736. Died 1819. Aged 83.] It has been said that the genius of Watt, as displayed in his mechanical inventions, has contributed more to show the practical utility of the sciences, to extend the power of man over the material world, to multiply and expand the conveniences of life, than the works of any other individual in modern times. His was a rare mechanical genius. It had been nurtured from his infancy at home; where he lived, as a boy, in solitary retirement, cultivating observation and reflexion, and kept apart from other boys by weak bodily health. It may be affirmed that his whole life was one long day’s labour, for his enlightened industry never ceased. When a mere child, he would take to pieces and reconstruct every toy that came in his way. At nineteen he went to London, and placed himself with a maker of mathematical instruments there, making delicate instruments for his employer with his own hands. “With those same hands,” says M. Arago, a little fancifully, since the head now took the place of the hands, “he afterwards constructed those colossal machines which in Cornwall, and on the ocean, perform the service of millions of horses.” But the improvement of the steam-engine, until it attained its highest point of perfection, is not Watt’s sole claim to the title of a discoverer. Without knowing a note of music, he constructed an organ, and in a great measure solved the problem of _temperament_. He invented the press for copying letters; he introduced the process of bleaching by the aid of chlorine; he explained the composition of water, and the art of warming by steam. The extent, variety, and accuracy of Watt’s knowledge were amazing. No subject seemed foreign to him, and upon every subject he spoke as if that alone had all his life engaged his attention. Sir Humphrey Davy declared that Watt stood upon a higher elevation than Archimedes. Great as were his powers, he was a man of child-like candour, and of the greatest simplicity. [By Flaxman.]