Steam engine

All those double-crosser men will work with him.

Jim, I guess I'm pretty slow thinking, but what will you do when you get the steam engine running?

Use it to haul the ore out of the tunnel.

Scar thought he had me beaten.

Isn't that right?

Say, what do you suppose it is?

Well, Dan, it sounds like a steam engine.

But I didn't know there was a railroad around here.

[instrumental music] Welcome to the Proper British History Podcast.

Today, we're pulling back the curtain on the steam engine, a machine that powered Britain's industrial age, but whose story is more complex than most legends suggest.

You know, steam engines are almost the pivot point of modern industry, but few people think about how a single invention could pull Britain into the age of machines.

It's easy to get lost in all the jargon, horsepower, boilers, locomotives.

Yet at its heart, it was just a clever way of turning heat into motion.

It was also an effect.

As factories sprouted, they demanded more fuel, creating a virtuous cycle of extraction and consumption.

The economic model of the steam engine is therefore inseparable from the development of Britain's early capitalist market.

The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay in 1733 dramatically increased the speed of weaving, which in turn created demand for yarn, which led to inventions like the spinning jenny and the water frame.

Soon these processes were mechanized using water power until the steam engine came along to make flying shuttles really fly in these huge cotton mills.

The most successful steam engine was built by Thomas They-Didn't-Name-Anything-After-Me Newcomen to clear water out of mines, and because water was cleared out of those mines, there was more coal to power more steam engines, which eventually led to the fancying up of the Newcomen steam engine by James I-Got-A-Unit-Of-Power-And-A-University-Named-After-Me Watt, whose engine made possible not only railroads and steamboats, but also ever more efficient cotton mills.

And for the first time, chemicals other than stale urine were being used to bleach the cloth that people wore.

The first of which was sulfuric acid, which was created in large quantities only thanks to lead-lined chambers, which would have been impossible without lead production rising dramatically right around 1750 in Britain, thanks to lead foundries powered by coal.

Another argument is that freer political institutions encouraged innovation, and strong property rights created incentives for inventors.

And finally, people often cite Europe's small population, because small populations require labor-saving inventions.

Oh, it's time for the open letter? An open letter to the steam engine.

Welcome to the Proper British History podcast.

Today we'll look at James Watt, Matthew Bolton, and the steam engine that reshaped Britain's industrial future.

Back in the early 18th century, the first practical use of a steam engine was to pump water out of coal mines.

The Newcomen atmospheric engine turned steam into work, but it was terribly fuel-hungry and clunky.

Those miners asked, what could we do better? Newcomen's design worked by condensing steam inside a single cylinder to create a partial vacuum that drove a piston.

This split allowed the same steam to be used multiple times, roughly doubling the efficiency and cutting coal consumption in half.

After years of experiments, Watt secured a patent for his improved design in 1769, but without money it was impossible to build engines at scale.

He struck an alliance with Matthew Bolton, who financed large-scale production through the Soho Works, turning the steam engine into a commercial success.

Spedding lost his life by an explosion of fire damp in 1755, while discharging his duties in the mines.

We now reach the most important epoch in the history of coal mining, which is marked by the invention of the steam engine by James Watt in 1784.

His discoveries opened up an entirely new field for the use of coal.

Railways, steamboats, factories, and iron furnaces multiplied to an enormous extent.

Grinding for self and others, 1,000 bushels.

IT WILL COST TO TRASH THIS GRAIN, SHELL THE CORN, AND GRIND THE FEET WITH STEAM POWER, $285, AND SOWING WOOD, TWELVE AND A HALF QUARDS, $18, PUMPING, ONE HOUR PER DAY, 365 DAYS, $36, TURNING, HALF HOUR PER DAY, 200 DAYS, $10, WASHING, HALF DAY PER WEEK, 26 DAYS, $26, total three hundred seventy five dollars this amount is saved and more too as one man by the aid of the windmill will do this work in connection with the chores of the farm and save enough in utilizing foul weather to more than offset his extra labor cost of oil etc for the machinery amount saved each year is just about equal to the cost of a good man cost of outfit seven hundred dollars just about equal to the cost of a good man for two years consequently it will pay for itself in two years fifteen years is a fair estimate for the lifetime of mill with ordinary repairs The solid-wheel windmill has never been built larger than 30 feet in diameter.

For mills larger than this, the latest improved American mill is the Warwick pattern.

A 30-foot mill of this pattern, erected in 1880 in northwestern Iowa, gave the following results as reported by the owner.

on plantations where it is desirable to have passenger carriages or where it is to be foreseen that the narrow gauged line may be required for the regular transport of passengers and goods the twenty inch line is replaced by one of twenty four inches The transport of the refuse of sugar cane is effected by means of tilting basket carts, the lower part of which consists of plate iron as in earthwork wagons, while the upper part consists of an open grating, offering thus a very great holding capacity without being excessively heavy.

The content of these wagons is ninety cubic feet, twenty-five hundred liters.

to use it for the transport of earth sand or rubbish the grating has merely to be taken off in the case of the transport of sugar-cane having to be effected by steam power the most suitable width of road is twenty four inches with nineteen pound rails and this line should be laid down and ballasted most carefully The cost of one mile of the 20-inch gauge road with 14-pound rails, 30 basket wagons, and accessories for the transport of sugar cane is 700 pounds, and the total weight of this plant amounts to 35 tons.

Owing to the great lightness of the portable railways and the facility with which they can be worked, the attention of explorers has repeatedly been attracted by them.