Today I went to the Science Museum. There were a few good exhibits about math, electricity and computers, but I’ll spare most of the details. The most interesting was about James Watt. If you’re not an engineer or British, you may not know what the man did. No, it was not anything to do with electricity. In fact, he didn’t invent much of anything new. Mostly he improved on other things in existence. He was a mechanical engineer in the 18th century that improved the steam engine to a point where he accidentally started the industrial revolution. All of the efficiency improvements he made, and measurement ideas (such as horsepower) led him to be pretty famous. His idea of more efficient mechanical horsepower was so influential that the SI unit of power (Watt) was named after him. Needless to say, it was a few solid hours before I left for some lunch. I at some noodles in the park and wandered around a bit while listening to RadioLab (the Galapagos Episode). Now I’ve got to pack up a bit before people go to sleep at the hostel, so I am ready to go tomorrow morning. If I can get some interest from other travelers, I may try that pub crawl again. It’d be free!
