Drawing, geometry, and the construction of machines were his delight. His very amusements were of a useful and recondite character. Not being able to attend the parish school, his father, who was an educated man, gave him instruction at the fireside, and the pupil was not an inattentive scholar. From infancy his health was feeble, but he early gave evidence of possessing superior mental gifts. The town of Greenock, in Scotland, is the native place of James Watt the 19th of January, 1736, was the day of his birth. There is no individual now living who does not share in the benefits which James Watt has conferred upon society. From the cradle to the grave, it has become the faithful servant of man, operating the mechanism which prepares his daily bread, and the loom which weaves his swaddling bands, his wedding garment, and his funeral shroud. And in its latest and most princely adaptation-the locomotive-it moves long trains of elegant carriages over the Alps, and the Alleghanies and on the railroads of the United States alone, no less than fifteen thousand of such engines are at present employed. It operates mechanism in mines on the lofty Cordilleras, as well as in mines in the valley of the Mississippi It moves vessels on the rivers of every continent-on the Nile, the Ganges, the Thames, and the Hudson, and, scorning the fickle winds, it has made the Atlantic ocean a great ferry between the old and new world. Since 1769, it has become the chiei ruler over the manufacturing and commercial world, as it is applied everywhere, on land and water, for innumerable purposes. Look now at the triumphal career of steam power. Excepting in the case of animal labor, these powers could only be used in few situations. The windmill, the water wheel, and the horse-gin were the common extraneous powers employed by man to assist him in executing severe toil. i$BpQTOment was made manifest to the world by descriptive enrollment in the London Patent office.Ī century ago, there was not a single steam engine in the strict sense of the term, in the wide world. This is not his natal day fcut it is the centenary of the occasion when his firs?. We mean James Watt, the great improver of the steam engine-that wonderful motor which has not inaptly been called tfce iron apostle of civilization. We therefore embrace the present opportunity of paying a tribute of respect to the memory of one whom we regard as the representative man in his domain of invention. We refer to inventors of improvements in mechanism-those men who by their genius, skill, and perseverance have made the forces of nature, But there is another class of great men whose achievements have been as beneficial to society as those of heroes, poets-, and statesmen, and yet, so far as we recollect, no suitable anniversary ceremonies have ever been held to do honor to their memory. For the purpose of perpetuating the fame of revered patriots and renouned warriors,almost every aation has been accustomed to hold anniversary ceremonies, In more recent times such occasions have been laudably instituted to pay respect to great poets, such as Shakespeare, Schiller.and Burns-those mighty bards who have made the chords of the human heart vibrate with every emotion.
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