James Watt & TT

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The step change for steam was first glimpsed neither in a factory nor in a garden shed but in the one of the greatest university labs of its day. It was devised by an innovator pioneering the use of mathematics in instrument making. But its delivery was also a commercial accomplishment requiring persistence, capital, and determination.

It was Matthew Boulton, not the University of Glasgow, who had the financial muscle to see development through to full commercial success. This unfortunately has been a recurring theme of UK academic invention over the centuries. But it is beginning now to change....