Portal:Electronics/Selected biography/2

James Watt (19 January 1736 – 19 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. Improving on the design of the 1711 Newcomen engine, the Watt steam engine, developed in 1765 offered a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency. Watt was ranked first, tying with Edison, among 229 significant figures in the history of technology by Charles Murray's survey of historiometry presented in his book Human Accomplishments. Watt was ranked 22nd in Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. The SI unit of power, the watt, is named after him.