什么是瓦特

Watt, James

苏格兰机器制造家和发明家。他所发明的高效率瓦特蒸汽机对工业革命的发生有根本上的贡献。自学成材，青年时曾从事数学仪器制造。1764年他在修理一台纽科门蒸汽机模型时，在机身外加一个冷凝器，便减少蒸气潜热的损失，使效率大为增加。1775年和博尔顿共同制造新的蒸汽机。1781年他发明了行星式齿轮，将蒸汽机的往复运动变为旋转运动。1782年他发明的双作用蒸汽机使活塞沿两个方向的运动都产生动力。1784年他发明了平行运动连杆机构，解决了双作用蒸汽机的结构问题。1788年他又发明自动控制蒸汽机速度的离心调速器，并在1790年发明压力计，这就使瓦特蒸汽机配套齐全，切合实用。他还提出了马力的概念；力的单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.