Engines of Change | How Steam Powered the Modern Age
In the workshop, all he could smell was the coal. It filled his nostrils day and night. The metal under his hands was hot. A few months before, the heat would have been unbearable, but the scares on his hands dulled the sensation.
He bent over the two cylinders and watched as steam left one to fill the other. A spray of water went into the first cylinder, and he listened as the piston fell back into a resting position.
The man repeated this action countless times. He looked at the fire creating the steam. And then at the stores of coal which, for the first time, still seemed full. He closes his eyes, and continues the work, listening intently, almost searching for the error as the piston moves inside the cylinder. The movement of steam from one tube to the other, the created vacuum, and the sound of the responding piston continues until they encapsulate his entire world.
After some time, the mechanism slows. He knows it’s because the fire has gotten low.
The man drops his tools, takes a step back, and opens his eyes to a new world.
Setting the Scene
It is not possible to fully grasp the impact of the steam engine without first understanding the world that came before it. Throughout human history, the power to perform work came from a handful of natural and labor-intensive sources like human strength, animals, wind, and water. Necessity is the mother of invention, and throughout time, humans have invented ways to make work easier and faster, from developing fulcrums that built the pyramids to feeding the masses by using the plow. These methods, while innovative in their own way, had natural, significant limitations on productivity and scale.
People only worked as fast as their bodies allowed. Animals like oxen or horses that were harnessed to plow fields or turn millstones, required constant rest and care. Wind power, captured in the sails of ships or through windmills for grinding grain, was unpredictable. Waterpower-powered factories and mills, which required both to be strategically constructed along rivers to tap into the kinetic energy of flowing water, driving waterwheels that moved machinery.
Transportation in the pre-steam era was equally constrained. People relied on methods like animal-drawn carts, the animals themselves, or sailing ships for transport. A journey of a hundred miles could weeks, depending on weather, terrain, and the availability of resources like fresh horses or wagons. In addition, these journeys were perilous, attracting only those who valued self-sufficiency above what was then considered, modern society. Challenges with trade and supply chains were no different. The slow and dangerous pace of wagons pulled by animals was improved through roads and trade routes, but were still limited by the human and the animal.
With all this in mind, let’s bring it back to the modern day. Many of you in our wonderful audience are, at the time this podcast comes out, in the middle of a commute. Consider the vehicle you’re driving and how it, with very little effort on your part, can accelerate towards your destination, carrying you at speeds that would have been unimaginable at almost any other era of history. A hundred years ago, a journey of 30 miles might have taken a full day on horseback or by foot; today, it’s under an hour. Now, think about the paved road in front of you. Despite the occasional unfixed pothole or endless construction, this road—smooth, durable, and engineered—enables your vehicle to glide along with precision and efficiency. Finally, consider the various stops you could make along your commute: a coffee shop for your morning latte or a store to grab a quick snack or essential item. Each of these elements—your vehicle, the road, the stores, and even the goods within them—relies on the others in a beautifully interconnected web of innovation. Every component, from the vehicle to the store, is the product of supply chains, modernized construction, and advanced engineering.
When contrasting the majority of human history with the modern day, one must ask, how did we get here…with an added, how did we get here so fast? The answer is far beyond a single invention, but rather the realization of what was possible as a result of that invention. That which we enjoy and take for granted every day came into being because mankind was able to realize what he or she could truly create. In history, these leaps generally stem from what we will, today call, an innovation accelerator. These accelerators are marvels that help us realize what we thought was impossible, was now possible, and as a result, becomes the catalyst that helps us push past our historical limits. One such marvel was the steam engine.
First Versions
In the early 18th century, England was having a major issue with its coal mines. Driven by the depletion of forests and the needs of the growing population for fuel, the demand for coal surged. Miners were forced to dig deeper and extract the coal at an accelerated rate. As they dug deeper, water seepage became an issue, and the mines began to flood. Traditional ways of removing the water – hand pumps and horse-drawn systems – were unable to keep pace, weren’t scalable, and required too much manpower.
Enter Thomas Newcomen. In 1712, he, an English inventor and engineer, designed an engine to address the issue of the flooding mines. It used steam to create a vacuum that drove a piston, which in turn powered a pump to extract water from the mines. The process worked by heating water in a boiler to produce steam, which filled a cylinder and pushed a piston upward. Cold water was then sprayed into the cylinder, condensing the steam and creating a vacuum that allowed atmospheric pressure to push the piston back down, completing the cycle. This up-and-down motion was harnessed to drive the pump.
Newcomen’s engine was a breakthrough in the sense that it marked the first practical use of steam power to perform mechanical work on a large scale. By 1725, dozens of these engines were in operation across England, where they allowed miners to access deeper seams and extract coal more efficiently and quickly. This, in turn, fueled the growth of industries that relied on coal, such as iron smelting and glassmaking. However, the Newcomen engine had significant drawbacks. It was inefficient, requiring vast amounts of coal – up to several tons a day - to produce relatively little steam. The heating and cooling of the cylinder wasted vast amounts of energy, which naturally required more energy to sustain. When the pumps were used near mines that yield vast amounts of coal, the engine was a good solution to the flooding mines. However, in regions where fuel was scarce or expensive, the engine wasn’t viable.
Despite these limitations, the Newcomen engine laid the groundwork for what was to come. It showed that steam could be harnessed as a source of mechanical power, a concept that would soon be refined and expanded upon by one of the most consequential inventors of that time: James Watt.
James Watt and the Steam Engine Revolution
Watt never intended to invent an entirely new technology. His initial desire was to refine and improve Newcomen’s existing machine. In the early 1760s, while working at the University of Glasgow, Watt encountered a model of Newcomen’s atmospheric steam engine. Reviewing the history of the machine and its limitations, Watt saw an opportunity to improve on the design. In 1765, after years of experimentation and innovation, he developed the separate condenser. This ingenious addition to Newcomens model allowed the steam to be condensed in a separate chamber rather than the main cylinder, meaning the cylinder could remain hot while the condenser stayed cold. The result was a dramatic leap in efficiency—Watt’s engine used roughly 75% less fuel than Newcomen’s while producing far more power, making steam power economically viable for a much wider range of applications.
Partnering with the industrialist Matthew Boulton in 1775, Watt turned his invention into a commercial success, producing engines through their firm, Boulton & Watt. Both men realized that because of Watt’s innovations, steam power had become more versatile and scalable. It could now power more than just pumps. I could drive machinery in factories, power locomotives, and propel ships across oceans. After only a few years, Watt introduced more innovations, such as the double-acting engine—where steam pushed the piston in both directions, doubling the engine’s power—and the rotary motion mechanism, which converted the piston’s linear motion into a circular one. These innovations meant that steam engines could power the spinning and weaving machines of the textile industry, the mills of ironworks, and even the early locomotives that would soon crisscross entire continents.
The effects of Watt’s innovations extended far beyond the realm of technology—they fundamentally changed the way people lived, worked, and interacted with the world. First, factories sprang up at an accelerated rate, which fueled rapid urbanization, as rural workers flocked to industrial centers in search of factory jobs. This migration reshaped social structures, creating a new working class of factory owners, engineers, and merchants. Second, the steam engine completely changed the world of transportation. Steam-powered trains changed the way people and supplies were moved. A four-day journey by stagecoach could be completed in just four hours by train. Steamships moved faster and empowered trade and the exchange of ideas, increasing communication and the flow of information across the world. Finally, steam powered technologies drove unprecedented economic growth which funded further innovation and societal change. It redefined labor, personal activities, and people’s very way of life.
The invention of the steam engine paved the way for the modern technology that we enjoy today. But like all innovation, history has shown that the drive to embrace that which provides new value requires responsibility in its application.
The Opposing View
So far, we discussed the positive effects stemming from this innovation. However, the negative effects of the industrial revolution-powered by the steam engine- were just as stark as its benefits. For example, the rate at which people migrated to urban areas was so fast that cities were unable to build housing or provide reasonable infrastructure, causing poor sanitation, extreme poverty, and disease outbreaks. There was no clean water, sewage piled in the streets, and the rivers became choked with litter and debris. In addition, priorities for industrialists were specific to building more factories and increasing factory output. Safe working conditions were less important, child labor was created and reinforced to support the growing demands of the consumer, and unimaginable pollution spilled into the air and waterways. In short, the pace of industrialization afforded by the steam engine outpaced regulations, leading to detrimental societal shifts, unsanitary living conditions, and negative environmental impacts. The rise of factories also meant the decline of small-scale artisans and local craftspeople, whose work was replaced by mass production. The concentration was on output and mechanized production. As a result, considerations for human production was lost.
Good Idea/Bad Idea
In and of itself, steam power is neither good nor bad. It is, as always, the application of invention that it finds its moral reinforcement or abhorrence.
Let’s go back to our conversation at the beginning of this podcast. For those of you who were on a commute, I hope you’ve safely made it to wherever you’re going. No matter where you are, at this moment, you’re currently surrounded by modern marvels. Each one, from the concrete under your feet to the vehicle in your garage, are testaments to the steam engine’s legacy. It remains a quintessential example of human ingenuity, an accelerator that increased the rate of innovation in the centuries that followed.
When we review the invention of the steam engine in history, we are reminded that technological breakthroughs have the power to transform society—for better or worse. As we navigate the digital age, the lesson of the steam engine is clear: Innovation should be harnessed responsibly, and in way that fosters further innovation, to the benefit of the person and society. Similar challenges are present today, from the advent of digital technologies and large language models to the potential for quantum computing. Like the steam engine, these accelerators have the potential to once again reshape society for the good and the bad.
When reviewing history, we have a blueprint that highlights what works and what doesn’t. This guide that shows us how both the good and the bad are equally possible, and that many mistakes are, at least in part, avoidable. It is up to us to either optimize the blueprint, or simply repeat the avoidable mistakes it details.
