My translation:

 

James Watt and kettle

A Scottish boy was sitting in his grandma’s kitchen, staring at the flaming fire in the fireplace, thinking in silence about the causes that make things happen. Indeed, he was always puzzled and always wanted to get to the bottom of things.

“Grandma, what makes a fire burn?” he asked after a while.

Grandma had been confused by his questions more than once before. So she continued cooking her dinner, ignoring his question.

In an old-fashioned kettle suspended over the stove, water started boiling, faint and cloudy steam coming out from its mouth. After a while, the kettle lid was pushed open, making a rattling sound. Immediately, hot steam erupted violently. But the child looked into the kettle underneath the lid, but saw nothing.

“Grandma, what is on the inside of the kettle?”

“Only water, my dear, nothing else.”

“But I know there is something, which lifted the lid open and made the rattling sound.”

Grandma laughed, and said: “That is steam, and you may see it coming out from the month, and making noise underneath the lid.

“But you just said that there is only water in the kettle and nothing else. So where does the steam underneath the lid come from?

“Oh, my dear, it comes from hot water, which evaporated into steam.” Grandma felt that she could not explain it clearly.

The child lifted the kettle, looked into it again, and only saw water bubbling noisily, and nothing else could be seen. Steam could be seen only after it left the kettle completely.

“How strange it is!” he said: “Steam must have a strong force to lift such heavy iron lid. Grandma, how much water did you put in the kettle?

“About a quart, Jimmy.”

“Oh, if such little water can generate steam with such strong force, would the steam produced by a large amount of water be much stronger? Why can’t we use steam to lift things that are much heavier?  And why can’t we use steam to drive the wheels?

Grandma did not answer. She thought: Jimmy’s questions have no practical uses, but are difficult to answer. She continued doing her chores in silence, while Jimmy was still sitting motionless in the same place and musing about this kettle.