Part III — Chapter 8
The Steam Engine & Industrial Revolution
How tinkerers and engineers transformed energy into industry
8.1 From Newcomen to Watt
Thomas Newcomen (1664–1729) built the first practical steam engine for pumping water from mines. James Watt (1736–1819) dramatically improved its efficiency with the separate condenser, making steam power viable for factories and transport.
8.2 The Lunar Society
Watt was part of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, an informal club of industrialists and intellectuals including Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, and Joseph Priestley. Their collaboration drove the innovation of the Industrial Revolution.
8.3 Energy and Industry
The steam engine posed deep questions: what is heat, and how efficiently can it be converted to work? These questions would give birth to thermodynamics, one of the most fundamental branches of physics.