The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-18
The Wheels of
the World,
DID JAMES WATT.
Was the Father of Modern
Engineering.

/
particular interest to the good sized
audience that listened to it, at the
hands of Professor James J. Guest of
| the department of mechanical engineer
| ing Of the Tech last night. The occasion
of the address was the meeting of the
washburn Engineering Society, which
met for the first time during this col
lege year in the lecture hall of the me-
chanical laboratory on West street.
| The attendance of the members of the
society was too small to transact the
regular business of the election of Off
GERS, but large number of visitors
were present making a fairly numerous
and decidedly appreciative gathering.
| In the absence of the president Gin
| ton Alvord of the class of Sc called the
meeting to order. The report of the
| secretary, Professor Sidney A. Reeve,
showed that in the last year the mem
| bership had risen from 100 to 40, but
that the recent action of the officials
made necessary by the revision of the
constitution had reduced the number of
members from the latter figure to 81.
The reason of the suspensions was in
| every case the non-payment of dues.
| The society comprises among its mem
bers a number of the most prominent
| manufacturers and scientific men OF
| the city, and an examination of the re-
vised list of membership shows that
| Professor Reeves axe has fallen in
some rather unexpected quarters.
The report of the treasurer, Charles
M. Allen, showed that the finances of
the society are in a satisfactory con-
dition, there being a balance of $50 25
in the treasury after all the expenses
for printing the reports of last years
meetings and similar items had been
met. Several new members were to
have been admitted, but the absence of a
quorum prevented this taking place, as
we'll as the transaction of all other new
business.
Professor Guest was then introduced
and spoke Interestingly for nearly two
hours. He was assisted by a fine col
lection of lantern slides, which were
| thrown on the screen and greatly aided
the audience In understanding his de-
scriptions of the development of Watts
! engineering ideas Portions of the lee
ture were of necessity quite technical
and little fitted to appeal to the unini-
tiated but the body of Professor
| Guests remarks were of a very enter
tanning nature from the standpoint of
the outsider.
The speaker said in part: Before
entering upon a sketch of the life of
James Watt, l would like to call your
| attention to the conditions Of life at
! the time during which he carried on
| his great inventive work. A little more
than a hundred years ago it was. and
| at that period the whole mode of life
was as differnt as it could we'll be from
what we now know and enjoy The
population of England was then Is mil
lions of people against the As millions
| she now supports. The modes of loco
motion We're something that we can
hardly realize in these days of rapid
transit. 1t took several weeks for
| Watt to go from London to Glasgow,
as he occasionally had to. Now the
| journey is easily made in eight hours
He posted his letters to the mine own
ers in Cornwall, to whom he sold en-
gines, and they got them perhaps in
three weeks if there was no delay Now
If they We're dropped into the post Of
flee in the evening they would be re-
ceived in the early mail on the follow
| ing day.
| The industries and trade of the coun-
try were far different then from what
they are now Then almost all the
business of the country was agricultu-
raj, there was comparatively little man
lufaeturing. At the, time Watt started
to perfect the steam engine, the wool
manufactures and exports of England
/
money. What the progress has been
in this single line since that time, can
| easily be perceived. In Watts time
the world was just awakening from
that period of sloth, the middle ages.
All modern mechanical implements
We're still to be invented or resurrected
from the neglect of the past. The
blast furnace had, it is true, been in
vented in 1920, but it came into useful
and practical operation not until two
| hundred years after that date
| 1t was 1880 before there was any ma
| chine OF practical nature for the roll
ing and otherwise working of iron
In 1898, Savary invented the pulso-
meter, which was the first phase of the
steam engine that was worth anything
\ at all as a mechanical contrivance In
| 1870, Fahrenheit invented his thermom-
| eter and began to manufacture them
| for sale. In the same year Wentworth
instituted an industry which has since
grown into the modern manufacture of
porcelain Harrington completed his
thermometer which took the govern
ment prize, and was the first instru-
ment ever made that was thoroughly
reliable as measurer of time. Just
about the same time, Hargreaves, Ark
wright and Crompton got out their pa
tents on machines that made the pro-
1uction of cheap textile fabrics a pos
sibility. The principal London papers
We're founded at this time, and the lit
erary life of England was given a new
| turn thereby. Adam Smith wrote his
Wealth of Nations and Sir Walter
Scott began to write during the life
| time of Watt From all these things
| it is easy to see that the period was
| one of the beginnings of great changes
and developments, and one out Of which
OF necessity grew some OF the most i'm
nj IA 81.
| day.
| When Watt began to make his preIi- /
| minary experiments in engine build
| ing, boring machinery had not been
perfected and the cylinders of his early
engines were hammered, not bored out.
Smeaton, who was the great engineer
of the day said that Watts engines
could never be made practical because
of the difficulties in making the parts
owing to this lack of machinery. Short |
" after the completion of Watts first
successful engine, boring machinery
was greatly improved, and Watt CON
graduated himself when his second en-
CINE came out that the workmanship
on it was so good that he could not slim
half-pound piece which is a coin
about the size of a half-dollar, between
the cylinder Walls and the piston of
| his engine
| At this point the stereoptlcon was
| put in play and an interesting series of
pictures and photographs of busts of
the great inventor were shown and
commented upon by the lecturer.
Imagine to yourselves a tall, thin
man, whose countenance was of a very
grave and almost severe cast, showing
at all times the effects of i'll health, and
| you have a picture of the great en-
gineer. In addition to this, you must
think of him as speaking in a low,
Imonotonous tone, with a decided Scotch