Böcker av David Philip Miller

Offers a deeper understanding of the work and character of the great eighteenth-century engineer. Stripping away layers of legend, David Philip Miller finds behind the heroic engineer a conflicted man often diffident about his achievements but also ruthless in protecting his inventions and ideas, and determined in pursuit of money and fame.

In the Victorian era, James Watt became an iconic engineer, but in his own time he was also an influential chemist. David Philip Miller examines Watt's illustrious engineering career in light of his parallel interest in chemistry, arguing that Watt's conception of steam engineering relied upon chemical understandings.

The ancient Greeks believed water was an element, and thinkers continued to see it that way until the 18th century. Then, it was found to be a compound, constructed of hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Who would be credited with the discovery, however, was a dispute that went on for 70 years. Miller from University of NSW.