James Watt was a Scottish inventor, engineer and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world. January 19, 1736 – August 19, 1819; died at 83. Alive at the same time as Abraham Lincoln, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ludwig van Beethoven, Immanuel Kant, and Napoleon. Wiki link