Lessons with a difference

with Prof. Rajiva Wijesingha

James Watt and the Industrial Revolution

James Watt is known for his work with steam engines. Some people think he invented the steam engine, but this is not so. He only improved it. Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen invented it earlier.

James Watt was born in 1736 in Scotland, which is part of Britain. He was ill as a child and he did not go to school. His mother taught him at home. When he grew up he became an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow.

There he received one of Newcomen's machines to repair. He repaired it, but he realized it was not working well. This was how Watt's interest in steam engines began.

He improved it and the steam engine became a vastly efficient machine. Before that the energy for work had come from the strength of men or of animals. The energy provided by steam power however was much greater than that of even large animals.

People like Richard Arkwright, who is sometimes called the Father of the Industrial Revolution, used Watt's machines. The Industrial Revolution is the time when machines began to do the work of men.

Machines produced much more than men could. People set up factories for mass production of goods. Cities developed and more and more people moved to cities to work in factories.

Watt died in 1819 as a rich and respected man. The engine he had developed changed the way men worked and lived more than any other invention since civilization began. A century later it was replaced by engines driven by oil, but the most important change in the energy men could use for their work happened at the time of the Industrial Revolution.

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Exercise 1

Read the passage above and find out whether the following statements are true or false. Write correct statements to replace the incorrect ones.

1. James Watt was born in England.

2. He invented the steam engine.

3. He studied at Glasgow University.

4. Engines running on oil were invented in the 19th century.

5. Factories were established to produce lots of goods after the steam engine was invented.

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Exercise 2

Identify the subject and the object of the verbs highlighted in the passage above. If there are any pronouns amongst these, mention to whom or what they refer. Find a sentence in the passage with three intransitive verbs (one of them is used to show a reason). Identify the places of the action of two of these verbs.

Look at the following sentences:
He was ill as a child.
He became an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow.
The steam engine became a vastly efficient machine.
The first sentence uses the linking word 'be.' The verb 'become' is also a linking word, and like 'be', it can be followed by a noun or an adjective. The word that follows a linking verb is called a complement.
Identify the complements of the three linking verbs given here, as well as the complements of the linking verbs below:
He seems an honest man.
My sister became very thin after her illness.
She is an old lady, but she looks very young.
That answer seemed correct, but it was totally wrong.
I feel fine, but I know I am not really well.

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Exercise 3

Look at the phrases and sentences below, and identify the prepositions in them:

James Watt's work with steam engines.
He did not go to school.
He became an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow.
Watt's interest in steam engines.
The energy for work had come from the strength of men or of animals.
The Father of the Industrial Revolution.
More moved to cities to work in factories.

As mentioned before, prepositions are followed by a noun, which they connect to something else in the sentence in which they occur. Of the above prepositions, the following are connected to nouns; as follows:
work with steam engines.
an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow.
Watt's interest in steam engines.
The energy for work.
the strength of men or of animals.
The Father of the Industrial Revolution.

The prepositional phrases that follow these nouns describe them just as adjectives do. The word 'work' could be described as 'hard' or it could be described as 'with steam engines.' So you can think of prepositional phrases (a preposition and the noun that follows it) as adjectival phrases when they are connected to a noun. 'Prepositional phrase' tells us how they are formed, 'adjectival phrase' tells us what they do in the sentence.

In the following examples, the prepositional phrase is connected to a verb, and tells us something more about the action of the verb.

He did not go to school.
The energy had come from the strength.
More moved to cities to work in factories.
Just as the adverb 'quickly' could be added to 'He did not go' to say how, we can add 'to school' to say where.
These prepositional phrases can be called adverbial phrases to describe what they do in the sentence. As with adjectival prepositional phrases, they are formed by a preposition followed by a noun.
Identify the prepositional phrases amongst the following and say whether they are adjectival or adverbial. Remember, you must consider what the phrase describes, which may not always be the word nearest to the head preposition (the preposition at the beginning of the phrase).

India

Indian culture goes back over four thousand years and developed in many different ways.

About five hundred years ago people from Europe came to India.

India is surrounded on three sides by sea.

In the north are the great Himalayan mountains.

Delhi is the capital of India.

Other important cities are the ports of Bombay, in the west, and Kolkata and Chennai in the east.