Watt's Perfect Engine : Steam & the Age of Invention

James Watt has become a symbol of noble heroism, taking his place as a Great Briton. Ben Marsden here recounts a fascinating story of scientific and social upheaval in an age of radical change.

This book reveals how James Watt―inventor of the separate-condenser steam engine―became an icon fit for an age of industry and invention. Watt has become synonymous with the spirit of invention, while his last name has long been immortalized as the very measurement of power. But contrary to popular belief, Watt did not single-handedly bring about the steam revolution. His "perfect engine" was as much a product of late-nineteenth-century Britain as it was of the inventor's imagination.