A Brief History of the Age of Steam: From the First Engine to the Boats and RailwaysIn 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invented a machine with a pump driven by coal, used to extract water from mines. Over the next two hundred years the steam engine would be at the heart of the industrial revolution that changed the fortunes of nations. Passionately written and insightful, A Brief History of the Age of Steam reveals not just the lives of the great inventors such as Watts, Stephenson and Brunel but also tells a narrative that reaches from the US to the expansion of China, India, and South America and shows how the steam engine changed the world. |
Contents
Transport by Land and its Limitations | 18 |
The Domination of Sea Traffic | 37 |
The Invention of the Steam Engine and | 50 |
Copyright | |
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age of steam American Argentine Atlantic became boats boiler Brief History Britain British Brunel Buenos Aires built canal capital carriage Chapter Chattanooga China Chinese coal coast Company considerable construction distance early east eastern economic eighteenth century electric Erie Canal Europe finally France French fuel George Stephenson German harbour horses Ibid imperial important India industry inland investment Japan Japanese labour Lake Liverpool locomotives London meant miles mines Mississippi navigable Newcomen engine nineteenth century North Ohio opened operation Pacific particularly passengers piston port problem rail Railroad railway result Rhine river road Robert Stephenson route Russian sail Shandong Shildon ships signal box southern speed standard station steam engine steam locomotives steamboat steamships Stephenson teenth century telegraph tozama track traffic train Trans-Siberian Railway transhipment transport tunnel Turbinia vast voyage wagons wagonways waterways Western wheels