PROGRESS OF THE ATMOSPHERIC ENGINE. — SMEATON'S IMPROVEMENTS. — BRINDLEY, ENGINEER OF THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL. — INVENTS THE SELF-REGULATING FEEDER. — JAMES WATT. — HIS DESCENT AND PARENTAGE. — ANECDOTES OF HIS BOYHOOD. — HIS EARLY AQUIREMENTS. — GOES TO LONDON. — RETURNS TO GLASGOW. — IS APPOINTED INSTRUMENT-MAKER TO THE UNIVERSITY. — OPENS A SHOP IN GLASGOW. — HIS FRIENDS AND PATRONS. — ADAM SMITH. — DR. BLACK. — ROBERT SIMSON. — PROFESSOR ROBISON. — WATT'S PERSONAL CHARACTER. — INDUSTRIOUS AND STUDIOUS HABITS. — HIS ATTENTION FIRST DIRECTED TO STEAM. — EXPERIMENTS ON HIGH-PRESSURE STEAM. — REPAIRS AN ATMOSPHERIC MODEL. — EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY CONSEQUENT ON THIS. — ITS RESULTS. — DISCOVERS THE GREAT DEFECTS OF THE ATMOSPHERIC ENGINE. — DISCOVERY BY EXPERIMENT OF THE EXPANSION WHICH WATER UNDERGOES IN EVAPORATION. — DISCOVERS THE LATENT HEAT OF STEAM. — IS INFORMED BY DR. BLACK OF THE THEORY OF LATENT HEAT. (44.) The atmospheric engine was brought to a state of considerable efficiency and improvement by Mr. Beighton, in 1718. From that time it continued in use without any change in its [Pg076] principle, and with little improvement in its structure, for half a century. Although engines of this kind continued to be extensively constructed, they were usually executed by ordinary mechanics, incapable of applying to them the just principles of practical science; and, consequently, little attention was paid to their proportions. It was not until about the year 1772, that Mr. John Smeaton, the celebrated engineer, applied the powers of his mind to the investigation of this machine, as he had previously done with such success to wind and water mills. Although he did not introduce any new principle into the atmospheric engine, yet it derived greatly augmented power from the proportions which he established for engines of different magnitudes.