Steam power during the Industrial Revolution

The partnership of Boulton & Watt became one of the most important businesses of the Industrial Revolution and served as a kind of creative technical centre for much of the British economy.

These interactions between companies were important because they reduced the amount of research time and expense that each business had to spend working with its own resources.

The technological advances of the Industrial Revolution happened more quickly because firms often shared information, which they then could use to create new techniques or products.

At first the phases were controlled by hand, but within ten years an escapement mechanism had been devised worked by of a vertical plug tree suspended from the rocking beam which rendered the engine self-acting.

Despite their disadvantages, Newcomen engines were reliable and easy to maintain and continued to be used in the coalfields until the early decades of the nineteenth century.

However, by 1783 the more economical Watt steam engine had been fully developed into a double-acting rotative type with a centrifugal governor, parallel motion and flywheel, which meant that it could be used to directly drive the rotary machinery of a factory or mill.

This allowed an engine and boiler to be combined into a single unit compact and light enough to be used on mobile road and rail locomotives and steam boats.

The engine boasted a number of desired features, including fuel efficiency (lowering cost of fuel by a third or more), low maintenance costs, 30% higher rate of power production, high thermal efficiency, and the ability to operate under light, heavy, or varying loads while maintaining high velocity and constant speed.

Unlike most engines employed during the era that used mainly slide-valve gears, Corliss created his own system that used a wrist plate to control a number of different valves.

[11] This mechanism is what allowed the engine to maintain a set speed in response to varying loads without losing efficiency, stalling, or being damaged.

These examples demonstrate that the Corliss engine was able to lead to much higher rates of production, while preventing costly damages to machinery and materials.

It was referred to as “the most perfect regulation of speed.” [13] Corliss kept a detailed record of the production, collective horsepower, and sales of his engines up until the patent expired.

[14] The engine also became a model of efficiency outside of the textile industry, as it was used for pumping the waterways of Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1878, and played an essential role in the expansion of the railroad by allowing for very large-scale operations in rolling mills.

[15] In the mid-1750s, the steam engine was applied to the water power-constrained iron, copper and lead industries for powering blast bellows.

[19][20] Steam engines made it possible to easily work, produce, market, specialize, viably expand westward without having to worry about the less abundant presence of waterways, and live in communities that weren't geographically isolated in proximity to rivers and streams.

By promoting the agglomeration of individuals, local markets were established and often met with impressive success, cities quickly grew and were eventually urbanized, the quality of living increased as infrastructure was put in place, finer goods could be produced as acquisition of materials became less difficult and expensive, direct local competition led to higher degrees of specialization, and labor and capital were in rich supply.

[21] These steam-powered towns encouraged growth locally and on the national scale, further validating the economic importance of the steam engine.

Prior to the steamboat, rivers were generally only used in transporting goods from east to west, and from north to south as fighting the current was very difficult and often impossible.

[23] Non-powered boats and rafts were assembled up-stream, would carry their cargo down stream, and would often be disassembled at the end of their journey; with their remains being used to construct homes and commercial buildings.

These ships led directly to growth in the coal and insurance industries, along with creating demand for repair facilities along the rivers.

[26] Additionally the demand for goods in general increased as the steamboat made transport to new destinations both wide reaching and efficient.

After the steamboat was invented and achieved a number of successful trials, it was quickly adopted and led to an even quicker change in the way of water transport.

[27] The transport sector saw enormous growth following the steam engine's application, leading to major innovations in canals, steamboats, and railroads.

This needed to change, however, as the potential increase in traded goods from east to west convinced many that canals were a necessary connection between the Mississippi–Ohio waterways with the Great Lakes.

The use of steam engines on railroads proved to be extraordinary in the fact that now you could have large amounts of goods and raw materials delivered to cities and factories alike.