James Watt Memorial Stone

Category: Marker/Sign/Street Furniture

James Watt Memorial Stone, Glasgow Green.

James Watt (1736-1819) was a great Scottish engineer and inventor who developed the first successful steam engine which he patented in 1769. The story goes that Watt was taking a walk across Glasgow Green one lunchtime when he suddenly had a thought on how to improve his design of the steam engine. That stroll in the park, and the invention which Watt perfected, changed the world forever. The Industrial Revolution depended upon such powerful devices as the steam engine and the machine loom. Steam ships and railway locomotives are just two of the revolutionary machines which James Watt helped bring to the world. There is also a statue of Watt in George Square.