什麼是瓦特

Watt, James

蘇格蘭機器製造家和發明家。他所發明的高效率瓦特蒸汽機對工業革命的發生有根本上的貢獻。自學成材，青年時曾從事數學儀器製造。1764年他在修理一台紐科門蒸汽機模型時，在機身外加一個冷凝器，便減少蒸氣潛熱的損失，使效率大為增加。1775年和博爾頓共同製造新的蒸汽機。1781年他發明了行星式齒輪，將蒸汽機的往復運動變為旋轉運動。1782年他發明的雙作用蒸汽機使活塞沿兩個方向的運動都產生動力。1784年他發明了平行運動連桿機構，解決了雙作用蒸汽機的結構問題。1788年他又發明自動控制蒸汽機速度的離心調速器，並在1790年發明壓力計，這就使瓦特蒸汽機配套齊全，切合實用。他還提出了馬力的概念；力的單位瓦特就是以他的名字命名的。

1736～1819年

Watt, James

Scottish engineer and inventor. Though largely self-taught, he began work early as an instrument maker and later as an engineer on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Watt's major improvement to Thomas Newcomen's steam engine was the use of a separate condenser (1769), which reduced the loss of latent heat and greatly increased its efficiency. With Matthew Boulton he began manufacture of his new engine in 1775. In 1781 he added rotary motion (a so-called sun-and-planet gear) to replace the up-and-down action of the original engine. In 1782 he patented the double-acting engine, in which the piston pushed as well as pulled. This engine required a new method of rigidly connecting the piston to the beam, a problem he solved in 1784 with an arrangement of connected rods that guided the piston rod in a perpendicular motion. His application of the centrifugal governor for automatic control of the speed of the engine (1788) and his invention of a pressure gauge (1790) virtually completed the Watt engine, which had immense consequences for the Industrial Revolution. He introduced the concept of horsepower; the watt, a unit of power, is named for him.