Fable or fame? Thomas Newcomen, like many inventors who preceded him in the steam revolution, has been clearly overshadowed in historical circles by the far more famous Scotsman, James Watt, who remains—incorrectly to some—known as the inventor of the steam engine. Watts engines arrived more than fifty years after Newcomen's successful mechanical works, and were considered improved versions of the Englishman's concepts. But this was precisely the basis of many inventors' successes, building upon their predecessors' efforts in the normal course of technological advancement. What is irrefutable is that both men, as well as others, can lay claim as pioneering "fathers" of the Industrial Revolution.

Newcomen came from the ranks of practical tradesmen, unlike many industrial inventors who tended to be noblemen, philosophers and royal protégés. The Newcomen family had had an impressive lineage and had held its manor from...