How Steam Power Affected The Industrial Revolution

The invention of steam power was one of the most important inventions that impacted the industrial revolution. In 1698 a British military engineer named Thomas Savery invented the first steam powered machine when put to the task of figuring out a way to pump the water out of the coal mines.

The first steam pump was able to function through boiling water allowing it to convert into vapour (steam) which was then collected in a tank which creates a kind of suction. This vapour/steam then rotates a turbine allowing the pump to create enough energy to pump water out of the coal mines and then bigger things such as locomotives. Although this machine was the beginning of steam power, two men called Thomas Newcomb and James Watt found ways to upgrade and improve the working of a steam powered engine. All three of these men helped evolve and invent the revolutionary idea of Steam power. Secondary source #2 shows a diagram of a steam powered pump and how it works.

The invention of steam power helped to develop our world today but had many effects (negative and positive) on business, trade

As rural citizens were forced to move out of the country to the cities where factory and mining jobs were being advertised, the large powerful businesses knew that the best way to make money in the millions was through cheap manufacturing. This resulted in all the employees being paid ridiculously low wages and some no wage at all. Parents on these extremely low wages couldn’t afford to feed their usually many children, so children were forced into labour. They would mostly work hard, dirty and dangerous jobs in the mines and factories that no-one else wanted to do. They much too often had devastating effects on the children such as diseases, infections resulting in amputated limbs and death. Primary source #2 shows tired, dirty children that have been forced into