Ben Russell is Curator of Mechanical Engineering at the Science Museum, London.
"In 1924, London's Science Museum acquired the entire workshop of
engineer James Watt, left almost untouched in the attic of his
house in Birmingham since his death more than a century before. The
museum put a recreation of the workshop on permanent display in
2011. This workshop inspired Russell, the Science Museum's curator
of mechanical engineering, to write his engaging James Watt: Making
the World Anew. . . . The diversity of Watt's interests and
activities was astonishing, even when compared with the
achievements of his Enlightenment contemporaries." -- "Nature"
"The first engineer to be commemorated in Westminster Abbey, Watt
was long celebrated as a heroic figure who arrived at his epochal
discoveries by virtue of lonely genius. Russell helps correct that
picture by celebrating Watt as a doer and a maker, rooted in the
artisanal culture of his times. Steeped in scholarship, as well as
nitty-gritty knowledge of the artefacts of the Industrial
Revolution, James Watt: Making the World Anew will prove
fascinating to anyone who wants to know how and why steam engines
were made." -- "Times Literary Supplement"
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