Tuesday, July 01, 2008

James Watt: Hero

"All unaided, this supreme toiler thus slowly and painfully evolved the steam engine after long years of constant labor and anxiety, bringing to the task a union of qualities and of powers of head and hand which no other man of his time--may we not venture to say of all time--was ever know to possess or ever exhibited." - Andrew Carnegie, Life of James Watt, 1905, p. 75 (or 88 of the pdf).

Yes, that Andrew Carnegie.
.............
I feel a deep bitter-sweetness reading this book. Carnegie casually mentions so many matters in passing... I would have loved to have read this with my father. To have him explain the sticking points.

!!!!!!

But wait!! My father-in-law is almost an exact clone of my father!

He's not a steam-boat engineer - he was a blacksmith... Maybe he's looked into steam power enough to explain some of these things to me. If not, maybe he knows somebody who could.

I gotta send him this link!

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