In 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invented a machine with a pump driven by coal, used to extract water from mines. Over the next two hundred years the steam engine would be at the heart of the industrial revolution that changed the fortunes of nations. Passionately written and insightful, "A Brief History of the Age of Steam" reveals not just the lives of the great inventors such as Watts, Stephenson and Brunel but also tells a narrative that reaches from the US to the expansion of China, India, and South America and shows how the steam engine changed the world.

Portrays 125 years of steam engine operations on the railroad.

The power and romance of the age of steam are captured in this vividly illustrated chronicle of the steam trains and railways that forged a new era in transportation from 1830 onward Presenting the first opportunity for long-distance travel powered by machines, the emergence of the train had an unprecedented influence on the development of industry, social history, emigration, leisure patterns, and military history. The steam locomotive was, in short, an engine for change whose impact around the world was both profound and indelible.

"The Most Powerful Idea in the World argues that the very notion of intellectual property drove not only the invention of the steam engine but also the entire Industrial Revolution." -- Back cover.

The 19th century was the great age of steam. This book traces the history and development of the agricultural use of steam power from the 19th century to the end of the Second World War and considers how it was actually used.