Q 01/05

In which Scottish town was James Watt born in 1736?

A) Paisley

B) Dumbarton

C) Greenock

D) Glasgow

Answer · why

C) Greenock

He was the eldest of five surviving children; his father was a shipwright and shipowner who served as the town's chief baillie.

Q 02/05

What was the trade of Watt's father?

A) Shipwright

B) Blacksmith

C) Clockmaker

D) Weaver

Answer · why

A) Shipwright

His grandfather Thomas taught mathematics, surveying and navigation; the family were Presbyterian Covenanters, though Watt became a deist.

Q 03/05

Whose 1712 engine did Watt famously improve rather than invent?

A) Denis Papin

B) John Smeaton

C) Thomas Savery

D) Thomas Newcomen

Answer · why

D) Thomas Newcomen

The Newcomen atmospheric engine had pumped mine water for half a century with barely a change in design.

Q 04/05

In which city did the young Watt spend a year (1755–56) training as an instrument maker?

A) Amsterdam

B) Edinburgh

C) Birmingham

D) London

Answer · why

D) London

Without a full apprenticeship he struggled to set up in Glasgow until instruments bequeathed from Jamaica gave him work at the university.

Q 05/05

At which university did Watt run a small workshop as an instrument maker?

A) St Andrews

B) Aberdeen

C) Glasgow

D) Edinburgh

Answer · why

C) Glasgow

Three professors offered him space after he restored the Macfarlane astronomical instruments; there he met chemist Joseph Black.