The Steam Engine And The Industrial Revolution

“If you go back to the 1800’s, everybody was poor. I mean everybody. The Industrial Revolution kicked in, and a lot of countries benefited” (Brainy Quote 1). Bill Gates’ statement proves that the industrial revolution was a critical point in history. The steam engine was invented by one person, but perfected by many. It had a large impact on society, creating businesses and new life styles; therefore it was a turning point in the Industrial Revolution.

Since the 1st century, the steam engine has had a long ride to perfection, as it was innovated over time by different people. In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, people were stuck with the challenges of extracting water from the mines (Lira 1). Before the creation of steam pumps, the only way people could remove water from mines was to use many buckets and a number of pulleys (Lira 1). The power of this operation came from the animals, even though they followed most of their orders they still had some disadvantages. The constant supervision slowed down the process, and on top of that it was expensive due to requirements like “feeding, veterinary and housing” (Lira 1). In the end the people had a problem and needed a solution. Then in 1698, Thomas Savery, an English inventor and engineer, designed and invented the steam pump. He described it as “the engine to raise water by fire” (McGraw 1). His steam pump was designed to boil water-creating steam, which vaporizes, then having a vacuum, separating the machine from the steam