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circa 1800: Scottish engineer James Watt (1736 - 1819). Watt was born in Greenock and went to Glasgow to learn the skills of a mathematical instrument maker before setting up his own business in London and working for a University. He improved the existing Newcomen steam engine by adding a separate condenser, and went on to revolutionise the design which went into production at the manufacturing plant he owned with Matthew Boulton near Birmingham. He continued to patent his new ideas but never realised his description of steam locomotion. The metric unit of power 'watt' is named after him and he was the first to coin the term horsepower. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)