THE STEAM ENGINE (1698-1776) JAMES WATT et al
You would be forgiven for picturing Hogwarts Express when you saw the words ‘steam engine’. This is because locomotives are by far the most visually impressive product of the steam engine’s history (I am also English, and therefore required by law to enjoy Harry Potter). But it is important to stress that the two are not one and the same, as the steam engine is merely the driving force behind the locomotive and is actually a century younger as an invention. Its earliest and most basic model came right at the back end of the seventeenth century, when Thomas Savery designed and built a steam operated mechanism to help pump water out of mines (using atmospheric pressure created by condensing steam). Now this isn’t exactly the most exciting use of brand new technology, but it did lay down a marker as the first practical use of steam as a power source (although Hero of Alexandria did have a real dabble) and this would lead to much, much bigger things.......
Like A WHOLE OTHER WATER PUMP built by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. Noticing that Savery’s design was highly inefficient and had a tendency to blow up, Newcomen was inspired to build a machine that would summarily eliminate those pesky explosions. The improvement was considerable, leading to a proliferation of steam engines across the country and a further step towards industrialisation. This wasn’t exactly forthcoming though and it would be another fifty years before a certain James Watt unleashed the full potential of the steam engine. While fixing a broken model of Newcomen’s machine in 1765, Watt found that he could drastically improve the performance of the engine by controlling the piston with valves at either end of the chamber it operated within, whilst changing the movement of the beam that it powered from a basic up/down motion into a rotary one (you may want to consult YouTube for a full explanation). Of course like most great technologies, Watt needed some serious cash to make it commercial (Dragon’s Den 1776 could’ve been a solution.....). Fortunately for him, Matthew Boulton was a businessman positively champing at the bit to send steam power viral and backed Watt as a new partner. The result of their investment was extraordinary. The Boulton-Watt Engine would come to be used in mills and factories all over Britain and well beyond, ushering in the age of industry and the birth of the modern world.