It is said that James Watt developed his idea for the steam engine by watching a boiling kettle in his mother's kitchen and seeing how the steam pushed things out! He first became interested in machines, working as an ordinary mechanic at Glasgow University, which had been founded centuries before in 1451. His interest in the steam engine turned it into one of the most powerful and important machines in the Industrial Revolution.
Throughout his life, he could not stop inventing all kinds of machines, some of which were still being used earlier this century.