He joined Wyatt and Paul in their endeavours to establish the
Cotton Spinning Mill, putting L1,000 into the speculation, which
unfortunately landed him in bankruptcy. He afterwards became an
auctioneer, and in 1788 had the pleasure of selling the machinery of the
mill in which forty years previous his money had been lost.
_Watt_, James, was born at Greenock, Jan. 19, 1736, and (if we are to
credit the somewhat apocryphal anecdote of his testing the power of
steam as it issued from his aunt's teakettle when a little lad barely
breeched) at an early age he gave evidence of what sort of a man he
would be. In such a condensed work as the present book, it is impossible
to give much of the life of this celebrated genius; but fortunately
there are many biographies of him to which the student can refer, as
well as scientific and other tomes, in which his manifold inventions
have been recorded, and in no corner of the earth where the steam-engine
has been introduced can his name be unknown. After many years' labour to
bring the new motive power into practical use, Watt, helped by his
friend Dr. Roebuck, took out his first patent in 1769.
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