James Watt statue in Glasgow Green, close to were he had his great idea on the steam engine.
“I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon, early in 1765. I had entered the Green by the gate at the foot of Charlotte Street and had passed the old washing house. I was thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone as far as the herd’s house, when the idea came into my mind that, as steam was an elastic body, it would rush into a vacuum, and if communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush in to it, and might be condensed without cooling the cylinder….. I had not walked further than the golf house when the whole thing was arranged in my mind.”
