Overview

The invention of the steam engine in 1698 by Thomas Savery (1650?-1715) was among the most important steps toward the modern industrial age, in which machine power replaced human or animal muscle-power. Savery's 1698 patent of his steam engine—designed to help remove water that seeped into the bottom of coal mines—laid the foundation for a series of refinements and re-designs by Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) and, most notably, James Watt (1736-1819) that resulted in the transformation not only of work, but also of the entire society for whose support that work was done. While any number of other inventions and devices played major parts in the march toward industrialization, it was the steam engine above all that established the place and importance of the machine in the modern world, and made possible the creation of the...