Name: James Watt. James Watt was an inventor, mechanical engineer, chemist, and instrument maker. Scottish by birth. Born on January 5, 1736 (Gregorian; O.S. January 19, 1736), in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Generation: The Enlightenment Generation (the 18th-century group that pushed science and industry forward, like the early Boomers did with new ideas). In the Chinese zodiac, 1736 is the Year of the Rat, which stands for creativity and flexibility. Capricorn is your zodiac sign. In 2026, it would be 290 years old. Married twice: first to Margaret Miller (1764–1773, died in childbirth) and then to Ann MacGregor (1775 until his death in 1819). There are four kids: Margaret (1767–1796), James Jr. (1769–1848), Gregory (1777–1804), and Janet (1779–1794). What it is: James Watt was the oldest surviving child of Agnes Muirhead and James Watt Sr., who was a shipwright, contractor, and slave trader. He was born into a wealthy shipbuilding family. He had migraines and headaches as a child and was taught math at home by his well-read mother. He went to Greenock Grammar School, where he found Latin and Greek boring but mechanics exciting. By the time he was a teenager, he was making models in his father's workshops, improving his skills while the family struggled with money due to failed businesses. At 18, after his mother's death and father's decline, he apprenticed as a mathematical instrument maker in Glasgow and then London (1755–56), returning to set up a university workshop in 1757, repairing quadrants, telescopes, barometers, and astronomical gear bequeathed from Jamaica, and befriending chemist Joseph Black (latent heat pioneer) and economist Adam Smith in the Scottish Enlightenment circle. Repairing a university Newcomen steam engine model between 1763 and 1765 revealed its fatal flaw: 75% of the thermal energy was wasted reheating the cylinder after cold-water condensation. This led to his "annus mirabilis" epiphany on Glasgow Green, which included the separate condenser (patented in 1769 and extended to 1800), jacketed cylinder, and planetary gear for rotary motion. These improvements increased efficiency by 5 times through the use of expansive steam, double-acting pistons, parallel motion linkage (1784, his proudest "ingenious" straight-line guide), centrifugal governor (1788, auto-speed control), throttle valve, and pressure gauge, all of which were low-pressure to avoid boiler explosions. They worked with financier John Roebuck (who went bankrupt in 1772) and then Matthew Boulton (who opened the Soho Manufactory in 1775). They charged 1/3 of the coal savings in royalties and installed more than 500 engines by 1800 for Cornish mines (for pumping), ironworks (for blast furnaces), and mills (for rotary power), even though they won patent wars against the Hornblower brothers (in 1799) and Wilkinson. A precocious polymath, he surveyed Scottish canals from 1766 to 1774, invented a letter-copying machine in 1780 (the ink-transfer press was commercialized), experimented with chlorine bleaching in the 1780s (before Berthollet), produced gas for Beddoes' Pneumatic Institution, made a sculpture-duplicating pantograph, and created flexible Clyde tunnel pipes. He also coined the term "horsepower" in 1782, setting a standard for sales at 33,000 ft-lb/min. He was a member of the Lunar Society and debated with Priestley, Edgeworth, and Darwin. He was a deist who didn't like his Presbyterian roots, was a bad negotiator ("rather face a loaded cannon"), and was a depressive worrier who hated negotiations. He made a lot of money (￡190,577 estate, ~￡25M today) through Soho Foundry (1796, 41 engines/year) and retired in 1800 to Heathfield Hall to consult on civil engineering, travel to France and Germany, improve his Welsh estate, and go back to Greenock on the Comet steamer (1816). Died peacefully at home on August 25, 1819, at the age of 83 from natural causes related to age and chronic health problems. He was buried at St. Mary's Church in Handsworth (now inside via expansion). He was honored by the state with a Royal Society fellowship in 1784, a Smeatonian Society fellowship in Glasgow in 1806, and an associate membership in the French Academy. His legacy includes the SI "watt" unit (1889), the £50 note (2011 with Boulton), statues in Greenock, Birmingham, and Westminster, Heriot-Watt University, the Science Museum workshop shrine, and the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.