Well it is hard to talk about theoretical physics at the XVIII century since physics in general was nascent and there was little separation between the discipli

Well it is hard to talk about theoretical physics at the XVIII century since physics in general was nascent and there was little separation between the disciplines. But I believe the industrial revolution was largely driven by the development of the steam engine, so Watt, Carnot, later Kalvin, etc. Of course that's not the only factor. Like computers rely on XIX century physics but it took almost a century before the technology became industrially significant.