Working A Scottish instrument maker, James Watt, was given the job in 1763 of repairing a model Newcomen engine

for the University of Glasgow, and noted how inefficient it was. In 1765 Watt conceived the idea of a separate condensation chamber. Watt's idea was to equip the engine with a second, small cylinder, connected to the main one. In Watt's design, the cold water was injected only into the condensation chamber. This type of condenser is known as a jet condenser. Because the chambers were connected, this caused condensation without significant loss of heat. The condenser remained cold and under less atmospheric pressure than the cylinder, while the cylinder remained hot. When the piston, propelled by steam, reached the top of the cylinder, the steam inlet valve closed and the valve controlling the passage to the condenser opened. External atmospheric pressure pushed the piston towards the condenser. A further improvement to the system of condensation was to dispense with the jet of cold water, and cool the condenser by immersing it in a cold water tank. This type of condenser is known as a surface condenser. At each stroke the warm condensate was drawn off and sent up to a hot well by a vacuum pump which also helped to evacuate the steam from under the power cylinder. The still-warm condensate was recycled as feedwater for the boiler. Watt's next improvement to the Newcomen design was to increase the power of the engine by sealing the top of the cylinder and injecting low-pressure steam into the upper part of the cylinder, instead of relying on atmospheric pressure. The power of the low-pressure steam would assist the vacuum created by the condensation, increasing the power of the down stroke, and the speed of the engine. These improvements led to the fully developed version of 1776 that actually went into production.

The partnership of Matthew Boulton and James Watt The separate condenser showed dramatic potential for improvements on the Newcomen engine but Watt was still discouraged by seemingly insurmountable problems before a marketable engine could be perfected. It was only after entering into partnership with Matthew Boulton that such became reality. Watt told Boulton about his ideas on improving the engine, and Boulton, an avid entrepreneur, agreed to fund development of a test engine at Soho, near Birmingham. At last Watt had access to facilities and the practical experience of craftsmen who were soon able to get the first engine working. As fully developed, it used about 75% less fuel than a similar Newcomen one. In 1775, Watt designed two large engines: one for the Bloomfield Colliery at Tipton, completed in March 1776, and one for John Wilkinson's ironworks at Willey, Shropshire, which was at work the following month. A third engine, at Stratford-le-Bow in east London, was also working that summer. Watt had tried unsuccessfully for several years to obtain an accurately bored cylinder for his steam engines, and was forced to used hammered iron, which was out of round and caused leakage past the piston. The following quotation is from Roe (1916):

"When [John] Smeaton saw the first engine he reported to the Society of Engineers that 'neither the tools nor the workmen existed who could manufacture such a complex machine with sufficient precision' " In 1774 John Wilkinson invented a boring machine in which the shaft that held the cutting tool was supported on both ends and extended through the cylinder, unlike the cantilevered borers then in use. Boulton wrote in 1776 that "Mr. Wilkinson has bored us several cylinders almost without error; that of 50 inches diameter, which we have put up at Tipton, does not err on the thickness of an old shilling in any part". Boulton and Watt's practice was to help mine-owners and other customers to build engines, supplying men to erect them and some specialized parts. However, their main profit from their patent was derived from charging a license fee to the engine owners, based on the cost of the fuel they saved. The greater fuel efficiency of their engines meant that they were most attractive in areas where fuel was expensive, particularly Cornwall, for which three engines were ordered in 1777, for the Wheal Busy, Ting Tang, and Chacewater mines. References: 1. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt_steam_engine