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James Watt, Jr
James Watt, Jr., FRS (5 February 1769 – 2 June 1848) was a British engineer, businessman and activist.
He was born on 5 February 1769, the son of James Watt by his first wife Margaret Miller, and half-brother of Gregory Watt. He was educated at Winson Green near Birmingham, by the Rev. Henry Pickering. His father was unable to find a better school, though dissatisfied with his son's progress.
At age 15 Watt spent a year at the Bersham Ironworks of John Wilkinson; and then went to Geneva. There he lodged with Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure, and knew Marc-Auguste Pictet and Jean-André Deluc. Subsequently, he studied German in Eisenach.
In 1788 Watt returned to England and a position in the textile trade in Manchester. Initially he worked at Taylor & Maxwell, makers of fustian, where Charles Taylor was a partner. Watt worked there in the counting-house. He was then employed by the Manchester radical Thomas Walker, changing jobs just before the Priestley riots of July 1791.
The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society was just one of a number of intellectual groups in Manchester at that period: Walker, Watt, Thomas Cooper and Samuel Jackson were leaders in the discussion of liberal reform and the views of Adam Smith. Watt became secretary of the Society in 1790, with John Ferriar. At this point Watt's interests were rather broad: Jacob Joseph Winterl the Hungarian chemist, Christoph Meiners, the Dictionary of Chemistry started by James Keir.
It was through Cooper that Watt joined the Constitutional Society, and then went to work for Richard & Thomas Walker. Cooper, Jackson and Walker were radicals and abolitionists, prominent in founding the Manchester Constitutional Society in 1790. The whole radical group resigned en masse, in 1791, when the Literary and Philosophical Society refused to send a message of sympathy to Joseph Priestley, driven from his home in the riots.
Watt went to Paris on a sales trip in France with Cooper in March 1792, at the time of the French Revolution. In April they conveyed to the Jacobin Club a greeting from the Manchester Constitutional Club. There was a reply of 13 April, from Jean-Louis Carra. Almost immediately Watt was denounced in the British parliament, with Cooper and Walker, by Edmund Burke. His name became coupled with Joseph Priestley's. His activities in France, including taking part in pro-Jacobin demonstrations, would later complicate his return to Britain.
In Paris Watt used letters of introduction from Priestley. He met the chemists Antoine Lavoisier and Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy in particular, though the talk was all of politics. He encountered also William Wordsworth, who became a friend. Over the summer he had business discussions with Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière. Tom Wedgwood came to visit.
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James Watt, Jr
James Watt, Jr., FRS (5 February 1769 – 2 June 1848) was a British engineer, businessman and activist.
He was born on 5 February 1769, the son of James Watt by his first wife Margaret Miller, and half-brother of Gregory Watt. He was educated at Winson Green near Birmingham, by the Rev. Henry Pickering. His father was unable to find a better school, though dissatisfied with his son's progress.
At age 15 Watt spent a year at the Bersham Ironworks of John Wilkinson; and then went to Geneva. There he lodged with Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure, and knew Marc-Auguste Pictet and Jean-André Deluc. Subsequently, he studied German in Eisenach.
In 1788 Watt returned to England and a position in the textile trade in Manchester. Initially he worked at Taylor & Maxwell, makers of fustian, where Charles Taylor was a partner. Watt worked there in the counting-house. He was then employed by the Manchester radical Thomas Walker, changing jobs just before the Priestley riots of July 1791.
The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society was just one of a number of intellectual groups in Manchester at that period: Walker, Watt, Thomas Cooper and Samuel Jackson were leaders in the discussion of liberal reform and the views of Adam Smith. Watt became secretary of the Society in 1790, with John Ferriar. At this point Watt's interests were rather broad: Jacob Joseph Winterl the Hungarian chemist, Christoph Meiners, the Dictionary of Chemistry started by James Keir.
It was through Cooper that Watt joined the Constitutional Society, and then went to work for Richard & Thomas Walker. Cooper, Jackson and Walker were radicals and abolitionists, prominent in founding the Manchester Constitutional Society in 1790. The whole radical group resigned en masse, in 1791, when the Literary and Philosophical Society refused to send a message of sympathy to Joseph Priestley, driven from his home in the riots.
Watt went to Paris on a sales trip in France with Cooper in March 1792, at the time of the French Revolution. In April they conveyed to the Jacobin Club a greeting from the Manchester Constitutional Club. There was a reply of 13 April, from Jean-Louis Carra. Almost immediately Watt was denounced in the British parliament, with Cooper and Walker, by Edmund Burke. His name became coupled with Joseph Priestley's. His activities in France, including taking part in pro-Jacobin demonstrations, would later complicate his return to Britain.
In Paris Watt used letters of introduction from Priestley. He met the chemists Antoine Lavoisier and Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy in particular, though the talk was all of politics. He encountered also William Wordsworth, who became a friend. Over the summer he had business discussions with Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière. Tom Wedgwood came to visit.