Watt, James

Japanese: ワット（英語表記）Watt， James

Born 19 January 1736, Greenock
Died: August 25/19, 1819. Heathfield Scottish engineer. In 1755 he went to London to become a machinist, but was unsuccessful and returned home. He opened an instrument maker's practice on the campus of the University of Glasgow. After being asked by the university to repair a model of Newcomen's atmospheric engine, he devoted himself to improving steam engines, inventing a separate condenser that reduced the steam and fuel consumption of thermal engines, which he patented in 1769. In 1775 he moved to Birmingham and, together with M. Boulton, established a steam engine manufacturing company, where he continued to research improvements to steam engines. In 1781 he patented a planetary gear device that converts reciprocating motion into rotary motion, and further patented the expansion actuation method and the double-acting engine (1782). He continued to make improvements, such as the parallel motion mechanism (1784) and the centrifugal governor (1788), and dramatically expanded the performance and uses of the steam engine, becoming a major driving force behind the British Industrial Revolution, centered in the mining town of Cornwall. Although he had no scientific training, his work was based on the state-of-the-art knowledge of heat science of his time, and he invented the unit of power, the horsepower, to determine the rate at which the Watt engine was used.

Watts
watt

SI derived unit of power, electric power, and radiant flux. The symbol W. 1W is the power of doing 1 J of work per second, or the power carried by a current of 1 A per second under a potential difference of 1 V. It is also the radiant energy of 1 J passing through a surface in 1 second, or the radiant flux. The unit is named after J. Watt.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1736.1.19. グリーノック
[没]1819.8.25/19. ヒースフィールド
スコットランドの技術者。 1755年ロンドンに出て機械工となるが，成功せず，帰郷。グラスゴー大学で器具製作者として構内で開業。大学からニューコメンの大気圧機関の模型の修理を依頼されたことから，蒸気機関の改良に専念することになり，火力機関の蒸気と燃料の消費を軽減させる分離凝縮器を発明，69年特許を取った。 75年バーミンガムに移り，M.ボールトンと共同で蒸気機関製造会社を設立し，蒸気機関の改良研究を続けた。 81年に往復運動を回転運動に変える遊星歯車装置の特許を取り，さらに膨張作動法，複動機関の特許を取った (1782) 。その後も平行運動機構 (84) ，遠心調速機 (88) と，次々と改良を重ね，蒸気機関の性能・用途を飛躍的に拡大させることによって，炭鉱の町コーンウォールを中心とするイギリス産業革命の一大推進力となった。彼の研究は専門科学の訓練を受けていなかったとはいえ，当時の熱学の最高水準の知識に裏づけられたすぐれたものであった。馬力という単位はワット機関の使用料を決めるために彼が創設したものである。