TY - JOUR TI - Watt’s workshop: craft and philosophy in the Science Museum AU -Ben Russell PY - 2014 VL - IS - Spring 2014 KW - Bennet Woodcroft KW - Birmingham KW - consumption KW - Heathfield KW - industrial enlightenment KW - industry KW - James Watt KW - making KW - mechanical engineering KW - Museum KW - Patent Office Museum KW - sculpture-copying KW - Watt KW - Watt's workshop KW - 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. N1 - Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, B Woodcroft to J W Gibson-Watt, 28 September 1863 N1 - 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 N1 - Science Museum technical file T/1924-792 N1 - Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, J W Gibson-Watt to Woodcroft, 27 September 1863 N1 - Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, F Pettit-Smith to J W Gibson-Watt, 28 September 1863 N1 - Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, J W Gibson-Watt to B Woodcroft, 30 September 1863 N1 - Science Museum inv 1863-15 N1 - The kettle was probably not originally made as a piece of experimental kit; it was most likely a cooking set or similar, for travelling purposes. N1 - Both these engines were acquired in 1861. Science Museum inv 1861-45 and 1861-46 N1 - ‘Craftsman and Engineer’ was the subtitle to H W Dickinson’s 1936 biography of Watt. MacLeod & Tann, ‘From engineer to scientist...', p 397 N1 - 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 N1 - 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 N1 - 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 N1 - Science Museum inv. 1924-792/627 N1 - 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 UR - https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/watts-workshop/ T2 - Science Museum Group Journal