How the Steam Engine Changed the World
Heather Whipps | June 16, 2008 04:43am ET
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Charles Parsons' Turbinia yacht, seen here in 1897, was the first steam turbine-powered ship. Photo: Alfred John West
(1857-1937):
Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history
being made today.
It is fitting that the first person to devise a working steam engine would be a man named Hero.
Sixteen hundred years after the ancient Greek scientist first made mention of the untapped power of steam, the technology would
become the hero and the engine that drove the Industrial Revolution.
When it was refined by 18th century scientists such as James Watt, steam power overcame the limitations of using relatively
weak men or tired horses to do grunt work and sped factories along at a pace never before seen.
Hampered by beasts
The Middle Ages aren't usually associated with industry, but societies across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia and
Africa did indeed have factories and manufacturing plants, albeit slow-working ones.
Textile production, for example, was a bustling trade, but had to deal with the geographic separation of the grazing sheep that
provided the wool, the water-powered mills built along mountain streams and the cities where the cloth was purchased at market.
The packhorses or mules that transported goods between them were expensive and slowed down by the weight of their load.
Horses were also used to lug buckets of water out of flooded mines, but needed frequent breaks and lots of care to keep them in
good shape.
Yet beasts of burden may have remained the mechanism of choice had it not been for the 17th-century British glassmakers that
required enormous amounts of coal to keep their hot furnaces burning.
The horse-pulley system used to drain coal mines proved inadequately slow in keeping up with the glassmakers' need for the
fossil fuel, and there were lucrative rewards for anyone who could develop a better way to drain the mines. Scientists began
tinkering seriously with steam in the early 1600s and, like most inventions of the day, it was a team effort that ultimately led to
the first working steam engine.
In 1698, British inventor Thomas Savery patented a steam-powered pump, which he described as an "engine to raise water by
fire." Savery's very basic engine relied on steam to create a vacuum and pull water upwards through a pipe — a theory that had
been around for several centuries but never successfully applied. The technology was improved with pistons and cylinders by
Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith, and again by Watt in the mid-18th century.
By that time, the speedy engine's reputation was gaining steam well beyond mining circles, moving indoors to other areas of
industry from metalworking to textiles, where it was adapted to the rotating wheel system common in European mills.
A savvy businessman, Watt marketed his machine by calculating the number of horses his engine would replace, coining the term
"horsepower" in the process.
The revolution begins in earnest
The simultaneous perfection of the steam engine and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution is a chicken and egg scenario that
historians have long debated. The world was becoming an industrialized place before the advent of steam power, but would never
have progressed so quickly without it, they argue.
Factories that still relied on wind or water power to drive their machines during the Industrial Revolution were confined to certain
locales; steam meant that factories could be built anywhere, not just along fast-flowing rivers.
Those factories benefited from one of the world's greatest partnerships — that of Watt and Matthew Boulton, a British
manufacturer. Together, they tailored Watt's steam engine to any company that could use it, amassing great fortunes for
themselves but also sharing research over vast distances.
Transportation was one of those important beneficiaries. By the early 1800s, high-pressure steam engines had become compact
enough to move beyond the factory, prompting the first steam-powered locomotive to hit the rails in Britain in 1804. For the first
time in history, goods were transported over land by something other than the muscle of man or animal.
The United States was the pioneer in shipping, putting a passenger steamship on the water in 1807.
That landmark trip, a 150-mile journey from New York to Albany on a ship called The Clermont, took 32 hours to complete.
Perhaps it was the reason for the ensuing boom in rail travel.
Inventions That Changed the World: The Polio Vaccine
It was the dreaded fear of mothers across the nation in the early twentieth century yet it is rarely heard of just a few decades later.
Poliomyelitis, commonly known and referred to as polio, is a paralyzing viral infection that is most common in small children.
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During the early years of the twentieth century polio was a cursed and whispered word, seldom spoken of lightly, and
never with a pleasant appeal. Polio’s terrifying ability to infect small children and interfere with their nervous system left many
thousands of American youngsters with withered limbs and lifelong disabilities.
The polio epidemics of the 1910’s 20’s and 30’s led medical professionals to scour the globe and their laboratories for a
weapon to use against the terrible disease. The so called Great Race for a polio vaccine culminated in what many have called the
discovery of the century by American doctor and medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk in 1952.
Dr. Salk first tested his vaccine against the polio virus in 1952 before announcing to the world in 1955 that a viable
vaccine against the feared virus was now a reality. Albert Sabin followed Dr. Salk a few short years later by licensing an oral
version of the polio vaccine in 1962.
The efforts of Dr. Salk and his contemporaries to fight back against the polio virus have led to the virtual eradication of the once
dreaded disease from off the face of the entire earth. Polio has not been completely wiped from existence, but it no longer carries
the horror that it used to thanks to the vaccine developed by Dr. Salk.
The polio vaccine is sure to live on in the annals of medical discovery as one of the greatest achievements of medical
research. At Independence University, we honor and respect the dedication of Dr. Salk and his contemporaries who won the
battle against polio and believe that their accomplishments should remind all of the great enabling power that education and
knowledge provides to individuals and to the world.
Empower yourself and your community by furthering your education in healthcare today at Independence University.
Author Bio
Megan Wickes is a graduate of the Master in Business Administration (MBA) program. She currently works for Independence
University, managing its online presence. In addition to her love of marketing, Megan enjoys wakeboarding, boating, and
spending time with her husband and new baby boy.
10 Ways the Internet has Changed the World
Close your eyes and think for a minute about what life was like before the Internet. It’s hard to imagine a time where there was no
Facebook, Google, email or online shopping. Generation-Z kids will never experience an un-wired world. They were born into a
world with wall-to-wall Wi-Fi, tablets and smartphones, and social media. I thought it would be fun to look back and see the
many ways in which the Internet has changed the world. Read on for a trip down memory lane.
Communication
Back in the stone ages a phone call, letter, or knock on the door was required to communicate with someone. Then you would
have to wait for a reply to your letter or leave a message on their answering machine if they weren’t home when you called. It
was a very difficult time. Thankfully, we now have more instant communication like options like text, email, video chat, and
social media.
Travel
Pulling out an atlas before a road trip (and having several direction arguments while en route) or waiting in line at an airline ticket
office to book a flight is a basically extinct. Thanks to Google Maps, GPS devices and online travel agencies like Travelocity, and
Priceline, planning a trip or getting to your destination is just a few clicks or touches away.
Shopping
Visiting the physical location of a store to make a purchase is no longer a must when shopping for a particular item. Now you can
search for the product online, compare prices between various retailers, and then make your purchase all while sitting on your
couch, watching Breaking Bad http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747, and eating ice cream in your PJ’s after normal business
hours.
Research
When you're looking for answers there's Google, Wikipedia, and WebMD just to name a few. From researching the Paleo diet and
DIY tips, to checking symptoms associated with an ailment, online searches have made us our own doctors, nutritionists, and
home improvement gurus. In a matter of minutes, with just the click of a button, you can go from knowing nothing about a topic
to being the subject matter expert.
News and Weather
Gone are the days of waiting for the morning paper to hit your front porch to get your daily dose of news and weather. Now you
can grab your tablet and scroll through the headlines of various media outlets and check the local radar all before you have your
first cup of dark roast, Columbian coffee with cream and sugar.
Banking
Believe it or not, there was a time when you actually had to visit or call a bank in order to check your account balance. Now you
never have to wait in a long line on Friday afternoon to get cash or deposit your pay check. You just sign in to your account
online (or tap on the app on your smartphone) and you have the most up-to-date information at your fingertips.
Education
Getting your college degree is more accessible than it was twenty years ago. Working adults who aren’t able to travel to a
traditional campus can now get a degree at home, while cooking dinner, washing five loads of laundry, and doing a 3rd grade
science project.
Entertainment
Remember when you had to set your VCR to record Seinfeld and All My Children? Or visit the video store to rent a movie? Now
you can watch your favorite shows and movies whenever you want thanks to streaming content.
Dating
The pressure of meeting someone to marry at your best friend’s wedding is long gone. Now you can find your perfect mate by
simply filling out a profile about yourself on a dating website and then wait on the virtual winks to fill up your mailbox.
Job Search
Finding a job used to require going through the classifieds in the Sunday paper or, even worse, visiting a business in person
(gasp!) and dropping of your resume. Now you can post your profile on job networking sites or search and apply online through
employment websites.
Hope you have had as much fun as I have reminiscing about the olden days before the Internet. Need an online connection to do
your shopping, researching, or banking? Check out Windstream’s High-Speed Internet plans and start saving today!