James Watt 1736 - 1819

This statue of James Watt is in Glasgow Green.  The significant thing about this one is that if you see it in any old books or catalogues it is nearly always headless!     That's because the statue was decapitated and had no head for the best part of 50 years.

He got his head back in 2005 but as you can see it could do with a bit of care and attention.

He was of course famous for his work on steam engines and his inventions included the rotary engine, the double-action engine and the steam indicator, which records the steam pressure inside the engine.

The unit of electrical measurement - the watt - was named after him.