19 January: James Watt

Scottish inventor James Watt was born on this date in 1736. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. Watt’s father was the treasurer and magistrate of Greenock, and ran a successful shipbuilding business. As a boy, Watt spent time in his father’s workshop and had his own set of tools, a bench, and a forge and used them to make models of things like cranes and barrel organs.

2. By the age of 17 he’d decided he wanted to be a mathematical-instrument maker. He trained in Glasgow  and later London.

3. He opened a shop in 1757 at Glasgow university and made mathematical instruments such as quadrants, compasses and scales.

4. In 1764 he married his cousin Margaret Miller and had six children with her, but she died nine years later. Watt married his second wife, Ann MacGregor, in 1776, and had two more children with her.

5. In about 1764, Watt was given the task of repairing a type of steam engine called a Newcomen engine. These were used to pump water out of mines. As he worked on it, he realised it wasn’t very efficient and he started working on ways to improve it, which included designing a separate condensing chamber so less steam was lost. His first patent in 1769 covered this device and other improvements on Newcomen's engine.

6. He might have applied for the patent sooner, except in 1766 he became a land surveyor and his time was taken up with marking out routes for canals in Scotland.

7. Watt’s partner and backer was the inventor John Roebuck, and later Matthew Boulton, who took over Roebuck’s firm. Boulton & Watt became the most important engineering firm in the country. In 1785, Watt and Boulton were elected fellows of the Royal Society.

8. Royalties on Watt’s patents made him a wealthy man, and he had time to spend on other interests. He was a member of the Lunar Society in Birmingham, a group of writers and scientists who wished to advance the sciences and the arts. Watt bought an estate at Doldowlod, Radnorshire, and from 1795 onward gradually withdrew from business.

9. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, was Watt’s doctor.

10. A unit of measurement of electrical and mechanical power – the watt – is named in his honour.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book