Q 01/05

Paul Crutzen tied the start of which proposed epoch to Watt's steam engine?

A) The Holocene

B) The Anthropocene

C) The Pleistocene

D) The Miocene

Answer · why

B) The Anthropocene

The Anthropocene was pitched as the age of human impact, but in 2024 the bodies that set Earth's time scale rejected it as a formal epoch.

Q 02/05

What was the trade of Watt's father?

A) Shipwright

B) Blacksmith

C) Clockmaker

D) Weaver

Answer · why

A) Shipwright

Shipwright: in his father's workshops young James built models and grew familiar with ships' instruments, which led him to train as an instrument make...

Q 03/05

Watt's son James Junior was denounced in Parliament for supporting which revolution?

A) The American Revolution

B) The French Revolution

C) The Haitian Revolution

D) The Glorious Revolution

Answer · why

B) The French Revolution

The French Revolution: in 1792 he delivered a greeting from a Manchester reform society to the Jacobin Club in Paris, and later had to clear his name ...

Q 04/05

In which city did the young Watt spend a year training as an instrument maker?

A) Amsterdam

B) Dublin

C) Birmingham

D) London

Answer · why

D) London

London: hard work on little food broke his health within the year, though he had learned enough to work as well as most journeymen.

Q 05/05

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

A) St Andrews

B) Aberdeen

C) Glasgow

D) Cambridge

Answer · why

C) Glasgow

Glasgow: after he repaired astronomical instruments for the university, it let him set up a workshop on its grounds and named him its instrument maker...