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Show Many Accorded Fame They Had Not Earned The popular belief that Watt was led to iiiven: Ihe steam .'t gine by oh serving the effect of neain on Ihe kettle ket-tle lid was described as a myth Prof. E N. de ('. Andr.ide In a lecture lec-ture to children on "Engines" al Hie l?oval Institution. London. Actually, he said. Watt, as an In striiment maker, was asked to repaii Ihe model of a Newcotnen engine and by his examination of this he was led to design a more etlici'mt and economic eco-nomic steam engine. In which steam, having heen expanded ro low pies sure In other parts of the engine, did work by virtue of the partial vacuum created by a condenser. It was that principle which was applied in every economical reciprocating or lurhin" engine of today. Many olhei famous discoveiles have hern culled ii question, and the claims of Inventors and sci. -ntists dispelled by the explosion of similar popular myths surrounding their work. There was a heated controversy as to whether C.eorge Stephenson or Sir Humphrey Pavy was the first to invent in-vent the miners' safety lamp- When the admirers of Davy In 1S1T present ed him n service of plate those ot Stephenson countered with an address anil fl.lKKI It ISIS. Henry Bell, the Scottish engineer who placed the first ship, t tie t'oniet. on the Clyde In 1S12 had to concede priority for the Inven lion to Hubert Fulton, an American engineer. |