All About Engines

38 All About Engines without their permission. So when the Corpora- tion of Hammermen objected to him on the grounds that he was not the son of a burgess and had not served a proper apprenticeship, he had to seek other quarters. When in this predicament he met with a slice of good fortune. He secured a room within the University, over which the townspeople had no jurisdiction. It was a small room, not more than 20 feet square, but it was large enough for his pur- pose, and its position enabled him to make friends among the professors. He made quadrants for mariners, and when orders for these failed, he made musical instruments and repaired scientific apparatus belonging to the University. But it was a hard struggle, and he devoted many hours to study and experiment which, if he had been able to choose, he would have preferred to spend in making a living. It was in 1759 that his friend Robison called his attention to the steam engine. There were none in Glasgow, but Watt had read about it and promptly made a model of one, which refused to work. Then learning that there was a model of Newcomen’s engine belonging to the University, which was then in London for repairs, he asked for it to be returned. At the same time he read everything he could find in the University Library upon the subject, and made many experiments, employing for his apparatus glass phials such as were used by apothecaries, or chemists as we call them to-day, and tubes of hollow cane. In 1761, in order to ascertain what force