DISAPPOINTMENT has been voiced over the failure to hold an official national commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the death of James Watt, the Scot known as the father of the industrial revolution.
While major commemorations are to be held in Birmingham where Watt moved in 1775, plans for a James Watt Festival in Scotland next year have fallen flat.
The lack of a large-scale event here is being seen as a missed opportunity to promote Scotland and his birthplace of Greenock.
Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Stuart McMillan, who has been working to try to set up a festival, has expressed his disappointment that the plans have fallen through.
“From a national perspective it is a missed opportunity,” he said. “It is crucial he is commemorated because arguably he is Greenock’s most famous child. He helped change the world and if his home town and home area does not commemorate his
anniversary it is very sad.
“It would be a wonderful opportunity to engage with younger people, particularly regarding STEM subjects. Highlighting one of Scotland’s greatest exports and one of our most brilliant minds would be a wonderful way of tying the past into the present and the future. We could show how the industrial revolution changed society and use that as a link going forward.”
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop last year gave her support to the festival idea, and indicated funding might have been available from Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund, but McMillan said he had been unable to find anyone able to take on the organisation of a major festival.
“It has been a hard slog to get some people to fully engage and for someone to drive it forward,” he said. “I did pull together various organisations in Scotland but no one could take it on by themselves and nobody was prepared to get some type of organisation up and running to drive it. As an MSP with a small office it’s
impossible for me to do that either.
“It would have been nice to have a grand, organised commemoration but unless something happens over the next while to drive it, then it is probably going to have to be smaller events taking place.”
He added: “It is not all negative as there will be activities about James Watt and the science he brought to the world and we can use these as an opportunity to help stimulate further interest with younger generations.”
One commemoration that he hopes will happen is a special rail trip on a James Watt steam express train from Glasgow to Gourock next August, on the 200th anniversary of
Watt’s death.
“I am working to see if that could happen as it would be a nice touch and would help promote James Watt and the Inverclyde area,” said
McMillan.
Other events may be held at Glasgow Science Centre and universities around Scotland including Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh which is named after James Watt and George Heriot.
Born in Greenock in 1736, Watt is now hailed as the father of the industrial revolution. His crucial role was to transform the world from one based on agriculture to one based on engineering and technology, recognised in the unit of power: The Watt.
An inventor, engineer and scientist, he patented an improvement to the efficiency of the existing Newcomen steam engine in 1769 by adding a separate condenser and valves, meaning that next year is also the 250th anniversary of the patent. The ruin of the humble cottage where he worked on his invention can still be seen on
Kinneil Estate in Bo’ness.
Watt’s condenser transformed the efficiency of the steam engine, in effect turbo-charging the industrial revolution.
He moved to Birmingham in 1775 to enter into partnership with Matthew Boulton to manufacture an improved steam engine that incorporated his innovation of the separate condenser. This became fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both Britain and the rest of the world.
Boulton summarised Watt’s impact when he said: “I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have – power.”
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