James Watt Quotes

• James Watt patented his steam engine on the eve of the American Revolution, consummating a relationship between coal and the new Promethean spirit of the age, and humanity made its first tentative steps into an industrial way of life that would, over the next two centuries, forever change the world.

  Jeremy Rifkin

  Change, Science, Two

  Jeremy Rifkin (2003). “The Hydrogen Economy”, p.6, Penguin

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• Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.

  Edward Teller

  Science, Technology, Discovery

  Edward Teller, Judith Schoolery (2009). “Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics”, p.42, Basic Books

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• For the birth of something new, there has to be a happening. Newton saw an apple fall; James Watt watched a kettle boil; Roentgen fogged some photographic plates. And these people knew enough to translate ordinary happenings into something new.

  Alexander Fleming

  Fall, Science, Fog

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• The best ideas aren't hidden in shadowy recesses. They're right in front of us, hidden in plain sight. Innovation seldom depends on discovering obscure or subtle elements but in seeing the obvious with fresh eyes. This is easier said than done because nothing is as hard to see as what's right before our eyes. We overlook what we take for granted. Billions of tea drinkers observed the force of steam escaping from water boiling in a kettle before James Watt realized that this vapor could be converted into energy.

  Richard Farson

  Leadership, Eye, Ideas

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• I wanted to be an inventor, whatever I thought that meant then. I guess I was thinking of Edison or maybe James Watt. Or maybe even Newton.

  David Antin

  Thinking, Newton, Inventor

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• James Watt was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and chemist; his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius - the union of them for practical application.

  Humphry Davy

  Profound, Peculiar, Genius

  Sir Humphry Davy (2001). “The Collected Works of Sir Humphrey Davy: Discourses delivered before the Royal Society. Elements of agricultural chemistry, pt. I”

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