Inventor's name: James Watt

Date of birth: 1736

Date of death: 1819

Invention: He revolutionized the steam engine. In 1772 his invention was unlike other steam engines for it did not waste steam and it had a separate condensor. He later invented a way of making the up-and-down movement of a piston into rotary motion allowing a greater number of motions for his new steam engine. He invented this in 1781. His invention was used for draining mines, powering looms and bellows, paper mills etc. It helped power the Industrial Revolution. Watt also came up with the term "horsepower" which he used to measure the power of his engines. He figured out how many horses it would take to do the work of each engine. Parliament granted him a patent in 1755 for his engine, making him a very wealthy man. In 1882, long after he was dead, the British Association named the unit of electrical power the watt.