Grampian Club > Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland > Volume 1

409
PAEISH OF GREENOCK.
A monumental statue of the celebrated James Watt, by Chantrey,
occupies a conspicuous position in the Watt Institution. The
statue, which is of white marble, represents the great engineer
holding in his right hand a diagram, while with the other he is
applying to it a pair of compasses. The pedestal presents the
following inscription, composed by Lord Jeffrey : —
" The inhabitants of Greenock have erected this statue of James
Watt, not to extend a fame already identified with the miracles of
steam, but to testify the pride and reverence with which he is
remembered in the place of his nativity, and their deep sense of
the great benefits his genius has conferred upon mankind. Born
19th January, 1736. Died at Heathfield, in Staffordshire, August
25, 1819."
Son of a small trader who bore the same Christian name, James
Watt, received an ordinary education at the Grammar School of
Greenock ; and having selected a mechanical trade, he proceeded to
London, and in his eighteenth year became apprentice to a mathe-
matical instrument maker at Cornhill. At the end of a year ill-
health compelled hira to return to Greenock. In 1757 he pro-
posed to settle in Glasgow as a mathematical instrument maker, but
being opposed by the corporation of hammermen, he sought and
obtained employment within the walls of the university. His work-
shop in Glasgow College became the resort of professors and men of
science. In 1767 he was employed to make surveys and prepare
estimates for a canal to unite the Forth and Clyde ; he afterwards
prepared a survey for the canal between Fort William and Inver-
ness. His attention had in 1759 been directed to the capabilities
of steam as a motive power, and some time after he tried experi-
ments on the force of steam by means of a Papin's digester. In
1763, when repairing a Newcomen engine used for pumping water
out of mines, he discovered its defects, and forthwith proceeded to
construct a machine of an improved character. He now formed a