Industrial Revolution without Watt

How many years did James Watt advance the Industrial Revolution

  • 1 year

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2 years

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • 5 years

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • 10 years

    Votes: 4 40.0%
  • 20 years

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • 50 years

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • 100 years

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10
Assume James Watt fell down the stairs and fatally broke his neck the morning of the day he would have started work on the steam engine. How long would the Industrial Revolution have been delayed?
 
Argument for a short period:
The "Elisha Gray Effect". If JW did not do it, someone else soon would have.
Argument for a long period:
From Savery to Newcomen was 14 years (1698-1712), from Newcomen to Watt was 62 years (1712-1774).
Argument for a short period:
John Smeaton improved the Newcomen engine in 1775 to a partial degree, probably independently, and Ivan Polzunov made an improved steam engine years before Watt, as did Humphrey Gainsborough.
Argument for a long period:
James Watt worked on the steam engine ~13 years, showing how difficult these major advances were, and was the one individual who really got the IR started.
 
Watt was, without question, a brilliant man, but he had contemporaries with similar brilliance and goals. If he died the IR would have been delayed, but saying it would've been put off for an entire generation, or even so longer as 20 years, is ridiculous. It could've stalled it for 10 years at the most before another individaul propagated a similar design.
 
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