Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/87

 JAMES WATT 257 condensation of steam. To this incident she probably attached more importance than was its due, from reverting to it when illustrated by her after-recollections. Out of this story, reliable or not in the sense ascribed to it, M. Arago obtained an oratorical point for an doge, which he delivered to the French Institute. Watt may or may not have been occupied as a boy with the study of the con- densation of steam while he was playing with the kettle. The story suggests a possibility, nothing more ; though it has been made the foundation of a grave announcement, the subject of a pretty picture, and will ever remain a basis for suggestive speculation. Watt was sent to a commercial school, where he was provided with a fair out- fit of Latin and with some elements of Greek ; but mathematics he studied with greater zest, and with proportionate success. By the time he was fifteen, he had read twice, with grave attention, Gravesande's " Elements of Natural Philoso- phy ; " and "while under his father's roof he went on with various chemical ex- periments, repeating them again and again, until satisfied of their accuracy from his own observations." He even made himself a small electrical machine, about 1 75053 ; no mean performance at that date, since, according to Priestley's " His- tory of Electricity/' the Leyden phial itself was not invented until the years 1 745 -46. His pastime lay chiefly in his father's marine store, among the sails and ropes, the blocks and tackle ; or by the old gray gateway of the Mansion House on the hill above Greenock, where he would loiter away hours by day, and at night lie down on his back and watch the stars through the trees. At this early age Watt suffered from continual and violent headaches, which often affected his nervous system for many days, even weeks ; and he was sim- ilarly afflicted throughout his long life. He seldom rose early, but accomplished more in a few hours' study than ordinary minds do in many days. He was never in a hurry, and always had leisure to give to his friends, to poetry, romance, and the publications of the day ; he read indiscriminately almost every new book he could procure. He assisted his father in his business, and soon learned to con- struct with his own hands several of the articles required in the way of his par- ent's trade ; and by means of a small forge, set up for his own use, he repaired and made various kinds of instruments, and converted, by the way, a large silver coin into a punch-ladle, as a trophy of his early skill as a metal-smith. From this aptitude for ingenious handiwork, and in accordance with his own deliberate choice, it was decided that he should proceed to qualify himself for following the trade of a mathematical instrument maker. He accordingly went to Glasgow, in June, 1754, and from there, after a year's stay, he proceeded for better instruction to London. On Watt's arrival in the metropolis, he sought a situation, but in vain, and he was beginning to despond, when he obtained work with one John Morgan, an instrument-maker, in Finch Lane, Cornhill. Here" he gradually became proficient in making quadrants, parallel rulers, compasses, theodolites, etc., until, at the end of a year's practice, he could make " a brass sector with a French joint, which is 17