RT Journal Article T1 Watt’s workshop: craft and philosophy in the Science Museum A1 Ben Russell YR 2014 VO IS Spring 2014 K1 Bennet Woodcroft K1 Birmingham K1 consumption K1 Heathfield K1 industrial enlightenment K1 industry K1 James Watt K1 making K1 mechanical engineering K1 Museum K1 Patent Office Museum K1 sculpture-copying K1 Watt K1 Watt's workshop K1 workshop AB Accounts of the life of Scottish engineer James Watt have tended to take a rather monocular approach to his life’s work – primarily concentrating on the steam engine. However, the evidence of Watt’s workshop, preserved at the Science Museum, points to the diverse nature of his interests, and particularly to the close integration of philosophical and pragmatic elements in his work. Here is the workplace of one of the savant-fabricants that Britain’s ‘Industrial Enlightenment’ depended upon. All was, however, underpinned by physical work and the creation of tangible artefacts that took into account a range of factors at once technological, entrepreneurial, aesthetic and consumer-driven, a point worth emphasising in consideration both of Britain’s industrial revolution and the recent debate about a re-balancing of the UK economy towards manufacturing. NO Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, B Woodcroft to J W Gibson-Watt, 28 September 1863 NO The glasses were returned to Woodcroft by the then tenant’s daughter, along with a ‘kindly expressed’ note. See Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, M Pemberton to F P Smith, 6 May 1864, and B Woodcroft to J Romilly, 7 May 1864 NO Science Museum technical file T/1924-792 NO Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, J W Gibson-Watt to Woodcroft, 27 September 1863 NO Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, F Pettit-Smith to J W Gibson-Watt, 28 September 1863 NO Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, J W Gibson-Watt to B Woodcroft, 30 September 1863 NO Science Museum inv 1863-15 NO The kettle was probably not originally made as a piece of experimental kit; it was most likely a cooking set or similar, for travelling purposes. NO Both these engines were acquired in 1861. Science Museum inv 1861-45 and 1861-46 NO ‘Craftsman and Engineer’ was the subtitle to H W Dickinson’s 1936 biography of Watt. MacLeod & Tann, ‘From engineer to scientist...', p 397 NO See for example, Miller, D P, 2000, ‘“Puffing Jamie”: The Commercial and Ideological Importance of being a “Philosopher” in the case of the reputation of James Watt (1736-1819)’, History of Science, xxxviii, pp 1–24 NO For a fuller account of Watt’s activities in making musical instruments, see Wright, M T, 2002, ‘James Watt: Musical Instrument Maker’, in The Galpin Society Journal, L, pp 104–29 NO For more on Watt’s work at Delftfield, see Hills, R L , 2001, ‘James Watt and the Delftfield Pottery, Glasgow’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland , cxxxi, pp 375–420 NO Science Museum inv. 1924-792/627 NO The small pieces of sculpture, though stored for a long time inside the workshop, were acquired separately from the rest of the objects. See Science Museum inv 1926-1075 PB The Science Museum Group SN 2054-5770 LA eng DO 10.15180/140106 UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/watts-workshop/ WT Science Museum Group Journal OL 30