age the steam and kettle story takes its rise. Mrs.
Campbell, Watt's cousin and constant companion, recounts, in her
memoranda, written in 1798:

Sitting one evening with his aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, at the
tea-table, she said: "James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy;
take a book or employ yourself usefully; for the last hour you
have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle
and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon
over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, and
catching and connecting the drops of hot water it falls into.
Are you not ashamed of spending your time in this way?"

To what extent the precocious boy ruminated upon the phenomenon must be
left to conjecture. Enough that the story has a solid foundation upon
which we can build. This more than justifies us in classing it with
"Newton and the Apple," "Bruce and the Spider," "Tell and the Apple,"
"Galvani and the Frog," "Volta and the Damp Cloth," "Washington and His
Little Hatchet," a string of gems, amongst the most precious of our
legendary possessions. Let no rude iconoclast attempt to undermine one
of them. Even if they never occurred, it matters little. They should
have occurred, for they are too good to lose. We could part with many of
the actual characters of the flesh in history without much loss; banish
the imaginary host of the spirit and we were poor indeed. So with these
inspiring legends; let us accept them and add others gladly as they
arise, inquiring not too curiously into their origin.

While Watt was still in boyhood, his wise father not only taught him
writing and arithmetic, but also provided a set of small tools for him
in the shop among the workmen--a wise and epoch-making gift, for young
Watt soon revealed such wonderful manual dexterity, and could do such
astonishing things, that the verdict of one of the workmen, "Jamie has a
fortune at his finger-ends," became a common saying among them. The most
complicated work seemed to come naturally to him. One model after
another was produced to the wonder and delight of his older
fellow-workmen. Jamie was the pride of the shop, and no doubt of his
fond father, who saw with pardonable pride that his promising son
inherited his own traits, and gave bright promise of excelling as a
skilled handicraftsman.

The mechanical dexterity of the Watts, grandfather, father and son, is
not to be belittled, for most of the mechan