A Scottish engineer who made a significant improvement to the Newcomen steam engine. The Watt engine proved so effective that he is credited with the invention of the steam engine, since it may be argued that the Newcomen engine is essentially only a pump. He was therefore instrumental in the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and around the world, since factories no longer needed to be tied to locations where there was a strong source of water power. Massive machines could therefore be built and housed in factories which proved to be the dawn of mass production.