Originally published in 1977 as a memorial to Rolt, this is an authoritative biography on the life and work of Thomas Newcomen, the first to produce a machine capable of providing power, other than that derived from man, animals or the elements. Additional notes have been added to put the book within the context of more recent research.

"From the beginning of the eighteenth century to the high watermark of the Victorian era, the world was transformed by a technological revolution - the like of which had never been seen before. ... Thomas Crump introduces the inventors, businessmen, scientists and explorers, who all had their part to play in the story of the Industrial revolution. He looks at how its scientific, technological and political changes spread across the world to [the United States of] America, Europe, and the Empire."--Back cover.

"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.

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.