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According to Wikipedia, steam engines did go "mainstream" with the coal mine use case, at least to an important part: The first commercially successful engine
by shafyy 4y ago
According to Wikipedia, steam engines did go "mainstream" with the coal mine use case, at least to an important part:
The first commercially successful engine that could transmit continuous power to a machine was the atmospheric engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen around 1712. It improved on Savery's steam pump, using a piston as proposed by Papin. Newcomen's engine was relatively inefficient, and mostly used for pumping water. It worked by creating a partial vacuum by condensing steam under a piston within a cylinder. It was employed for draining mine workings at depths originally impractical using traditional means, and for providing reusable water for driving waterwheels at factories sited away from a suitable "head".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine#History
- Retric 4y agoThe industrial revolution is generally considered to have started around 1760. That’s 50 years after adoption of the Thomas Newcomen steam engine and 150 years after steam engines where in use. This shows it wasn’t specifically the steam engine that kicked things off, but rather a wide range of factors which eventually caused people to say something different was going on. The stated start of the industrial revolution is really quite arbitrary, but linking it to the seam engine is really a misunderstanding what was going on. If you want to point to a single invention Benjamin Huntsman developing the crucible technique for steel production in 1740 had a larger impact on the early years of the first industrial revolution. But again it wasn’t any single invention the transition was simply continuous.
- shafyy 4y agoYou're right, I misread your comment. I thought that you said that steam engines weren't initially mainly used in coal mines.