# Peter Ewart > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Peter_Ewart > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Peter_Ewart.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ewart > Source revision: 1338517025 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{For|the Canadian painter|Peter Maxwell Ewart}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}} {{Use British English|date=March 2017}} {{More footnotes needed|date=March 2011}} {{Infobox person | name = Peter Ewart | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1767|5|14|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1842|9|15|1767|5|14|df=y}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Engineer | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Peter Ewart''' (14 May 1767 – 15 September 1842) was a [Scottish engineer](/source/%3ACategory%3A18th-century_Scottish_engineers) who was influential in developing the technologies of [turbine](/source/turbine)s and theories of [thermodynamics](/source/thermodynamics). ==Biography== He was son of the [Church of Scotland](/source/Church_of_Scotland) minister of [Troqueer](/source/Troqueer) near [Dumfries](/source/Dumfries), and was one of eleven children. His brother [Joseph Ewart](/source/Joseph_Ewart) became British ambassador to Prussia; John, a doctor, became Chief Inspector of East India Company hospitals in India; and William, father of [William Ewart](/source/William_Ewart_(British_politician)), was business partner of Sir John Gladstone,{{sfn|Musson|Robinson|1960|pp=209–233}} father of [William Ewart Gladstone](/source/William_Ewart_Gladstone), whose godfather he was and whom he was named after. Following graduation from the [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh),{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} he was apprenticed to [millwright](/source/millwright) [John Rennie](/source/John_Rennie_(engineer)).{{sfn|Musson|Robinson|1960|pp=209–233}} His work with [water wheel](/source/water_wheel)s{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} led him to work with [Matthew Boulton](/source/Matthew_Boulton) and [James Watt](/source/James_Watt) for whom by 1790 he was agent in [Manchester](/source/Manchester). At the same time as acting as agent he was also trading on his own account as a [millwright](/source/millwright), enabling him to provide the complementary shafts, gears and other necessities to harness the power of the Boulton & Watt steam engines.{{sfn|Musson|Robinson|1960|pp=209–233}} In 1792, frustrated in administering the immature and, as yet, unreliable machinery,{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} he left Boulton and Watt to work in [partnership](/source/partnership) with [Samuel Oldknow](/source/Samuel_Oldknow) in a [cotton](/source/cotton) [bleaching](/source/bleaching) and [calico](/source/calico_(textile)) [printing](/source/printing) venture. He anticipated this being a profitable concern but the partnership was dissolved within a year and he returned to engineering.{{sfn|Musson|Robinson|1960|pp=209–233}} In 1798 he went into partnership with [Samuel Greg](/source/Samuel_Greg),{{sfn|Musson|Robinson|1960|pp=209–233}} installing an innovative water wheel at Greg's [Quarry Bank Mill](/source/Quarry_Bank_Mill) on the [River Bollin](/source/River_Bollin) in [Cheshire](/source/Cheshire). As a standby, he installed a [Watt steam engine](/source/Watt_steam_engine){{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}. By 1811, Ewart had abandoned the venture with Greg to concentrate on his own manufacturing business but also his scientific work. He became, along with [John Dalton](/source/John_Dalton), a vice-president of the [Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society](/source/Manchester_Literary_and_Philosophical_Society) and became active in the contemporary controversies about [heat](/source/heat), [work](/source/mechanical_work) and [energy](/source/energy). Motivated by a paper of [John Playfair](/source/John_Playfair) and encouraged by Dalton, in 1813 he published "On the measure of [moving force](/source/vis_viva)" in which he defended the nascent ideas of the [conservation of energy](/source/conservation_of_energy) championed by [John Smeaton](/source/John_Smeaton). The paper was strongly to influence Dalton's pupil [James Prescott Joule](/source/James_Prescott_Joule). A vocal advocate of the application of scientific knowledge in engineering, he was one of the founders of the [Manchester Mechanics' Institute](/source/Manchester_Mechanics'_Institute). Ewart took up the post of Chief Engineer and Chief Inspector of Machinery with the [Admiralty](/source/British_Admiralty) in 1835{{sfn|Musson|Robinson|1960|pp=209–233}} and died on 15 September 1842 at [Woolwich Dockyard](/source/Woolwich_Dockyard) when a chain snapped as he was supervising the removal of a boiler.{{sfn|Axon|1885|p=218}} ==See also== *[Timeline of thermodynamics](/source/Timeline_of_thermodynamics) *[Vis viva](/source/Vis_viva) == References == ===Citations=== {{reflist}} ===Sources=== {{refbegin|2|indent=yes}} *{{cite book |title=The Annals of Manchester |last=Axon|first= William Edward Armytage |page=218 |publisher=John Heywood |year=1885 |url=https://archive.org/stream/annalsmancheste01axongoog#page/n242/mode/2up }} *{{cite book|last=Cardwell|first= D.S.L. |date=1971|title=From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age|publisher=Cornell University Press|pages=82–83|isbn= 9780801406782 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJEyAAAAMAAJ}} *{{cite journal|last=Ewart|first= P. |date=1813|title=On the measure of moving force|journal=Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester|series=2nd Series|volume=II|pages=105–258|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofliterar02memo/page/104/mode/2up}} *{{cite journal|last=Henry|first= W.C. |date=1846|title=A biographical note of the late Peter Ewart|journal=Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester|series=2nd Series|volume=VII|pages=113–136 |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofliterar07lite/page/112/mode/2up}} *{{cite journal|author-link=Eaton Hodgkinson|last=Hodgkinson|first= E.|date=1846|title=Some account of the late Mr Ewart's paper 'On the measure of moving force'|journal=Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester|series=2nd Series|volume=VII|pages=137–156|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofliterar07lite/page/136/mode/2up}} *{{Cite journal |title=The Origins of Engineering in Lancashire |first1=A. E. |last1=Musson |first2=E. |last2= Robinson |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=20 |issue=2 |date=June 1960 |pages=209–233 |jstor=2114855 |publisher=Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association|doi=10.1017/S0022050700110435 |s2cid=154008652 }} {{refend}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ewart, Peter}} Category:1767 births Category:1842 deaths Category:British engineers Category:History of Greater Manchester Category:Industrial accident deaths Category:Accidental deaths in London Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:People from Dumfries and Galloway --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Peter Ewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ewart) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ewart?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.