The Steam Engine and the Industrial Revolution

A steam engine is a heat engine: it uses steam to convert thermal energy into mechanical work. Practical early Newcomen atmospheric engines in the early eighteenth century were used primarily to pump water from mines. James Watt’s improvements and later developments made steam power useful for rotary factory machinery and, later, locomotives and steamships. The steam engine was a key driver of industrialization, but the Industrial Revolution also depended on coal, capital, markets, labor, transport, and many other technological changes.