Watt, Watts, Brown, What?, Wyatt
Let’s dispense with the obvious. The Industrial Age can be blamed on a Scottish lanyard. Hang with me while I weave this delicate yet witty Wyatty thread.
He suffered frequent headaches as a child. He then grew so used to them that he was not averse to them. Bouts of ill health during childhood is pretty much a passing metric to the English system. Some call it the American system but I respectfully agree. The one thing that is sure to survive us is death, taxes, sovereignty and Disney. He said that to a college colleague who was also Scottish. A strange bird that one. That bird didn’t know what it wanted to be in life. He was first a physicist, then a chemist, then a professor of medicine and then finally anatomy. That’s how Jim Watt would have introduced Joseph Black. Although no one called him Jim except in his privates. To everyone else he was James Watt. He wasn’t yet known as the man who would spark the Industrial Revolution aided and abetted by an economist named Adam Smith, also a Scotsman. The three Scots were well known at the University of Glasgow as troublemakers. The choice was always between the GUU and the QMU when deciding which bar to drink at. The GUU better known as Glasgow University Union was more popular between them, although they would never admit it in private.
James’ father James Watt was a shipwright, a ship owner and contractor. Somehow without qualifications he was also magically elected as the chief baillie. I presume that’s where the word “bail” comes from. Bail is used to bail water and to get bailed from prison when a baillie releases her claws. [[Sorry Billie they made me write that. I am not a bad guy.]]
James was having a miserable time finding a proper apprenticeship for his skills as an engineer. Alexander McFarlane from Jamaica sent over some astronomical instruments bequeathed to the university that needed to be “refurbished”. That’s where he met the other two at the GUU. And the rest is history. He went on to invent the steam engine that powered trains and sparked a revolution that still continues to this day. He changed the language itself: industry continues to mean hard work and labor. He was industrious in his pursuits.
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Ok so that’s Watt, who's Watts?
How much time do you have?
Come on have a pint lassie. You post way too many articles for a crows that don’t appreciate good humor. And subtlety.
Okay. A pint. I’ll just cut and paste the meaty part.
He seems to have made few speeches in the House, but is known to have favoured corporal punishment, slum clearance, building additional housing for the working classes, and limiting immigration.
Died of natural causes at the age of 57.
That’s it lassie. We all die someday. Mostly of natural causes.
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Watson! yelled Sherlock. Who has a counter for energy cost tracking on the Iran War?
I don’t know.
Elementary my dear Watson, it’s at Brown University.
Sherlock that’s only the cost to American consumers. What about the cost to the rest of the Commonwealth?
Think about it Watson. In addition to the military cost of war that is estimated to have cost 100B and there is another bill seeking approval for additional funding of 60B more, this is the cost of energy.
Sherlock they could solve the housing problem in Cleveland for 10B.
This is just 225B Watson that is immediate and apparent. I am sure there are hidden costs.
Such as?
Such as 15 dead soldiers, 150 dead school children, torpedoed Iranian sailors who were unarmed and so on. That's not what I mean. I mean… there are hidden costs.
You mean secondary costs. The costs of not doing something.
No Watson. Those are secondary costs. I mean hidden costs.
I don’t know what you mean.
Neither do I Watson. Neither do I.
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What? I said James Black was a strange bird.
