Excerpt from James Watt: An Oration Delivered in the University of Glasgow on the Commemoration of Its Ninth Jubilee The name of James Watt is famous throughout the whole world, in every part of which his great work has conferred benefits on mankind in continually increasing volume up to the present day. It is fitting that the University of Glasgow, in this celebration of its ninth jubilee, should recollect with pride the privilege it happily exercised a hundred and forty-five years ago of lending a helping hand, and extending the beneficent solace of personal friendly intercourse of professors of mathematics, philosophy, and classical literature, and giving a workshop within its walls, to as young man of no university education, struggling to commence earning a livelihood as a mathematical-instrument-maker, in whom they discovered something of the genius, destined for such great things in future. James Watt's paternal grandfather, Thomas Watt, was the son of an Aberdeenshire farmer, who died in battle in one of the wars of Montrose early in the seventeenth century. As a poor orphan, he was rescued from destitution by benevolent relatives of whom no records are known. He settled in Carsedyke as a teacher of navigation, or "Professor of the Mathematicks," as he was styled on his tombstone. Carsedyke, on the site of the present Port-Glasgow, was a borough of barony under a charter of Charles II. (1669), a mile or two from Greenock, to which a charter had been granted by Charles I. thirty-four years earlier (1635). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.