Watt as an Inquiring Boy.
“His active mind was employed in investigating the properties of steam; he was then fifteen, and once in conversation he informed me that he had read twice, with great attention, S’Gravesande’s ‘Elements of Natural Philosophy,’ adding that it was the first book upon that subject put into his hands, and that he still thought it one of the best. While under his father’s roof, he went on with various chemical experiments, repeating them again and again until satisfied of their accuracy from his own observations. He had made for himself a small electrical machine, and sometimes startled his young friends by giving them sudden shocks from it.”