Western Culture Global Presents

The Top 100 Heroes of Western Culture
These individuals have most contributed to replacing ignorance with knowledge, savagery with civilization, disease with health, tyranny with liberty, poverty with abundance, and despair with happiness.



#54: James Watt (1736-1819)

James Watt (1736-1819) was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were critical in bringing about the Industrial Revolution.

Watt's modification to the steam engine, originally invented by Thomas Newcomen, dramatically transformed the world of work. Watt's engine allowed flexibility in where factories could be built and increased productivity and economies of scale.

Also, his invention, with improvement from later engineers, would eventually revolutionized transportation by making possible the locomotive and steamboat. His invention, in other words, laid the foundation for much of the modern world.

Watt’s invention has greater significance than even this, however. For thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution, reason, science and knowledge were viewed as impractical, unworldly pursuits that could have little impact on people’s lives.

The Industrial Revolution, spurred by Watt’s invention, demonstrated in the most convincing way possible that the opposite is true. Reason, science and knowledge are profoundly practical; they can impact and continuously improve virtually every aspect of people's lives.



Go to #55: Thomas Edison


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