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What was the steam engine?
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What was the steam engine?

From flooded coal mines to the machine that unchained energy itself: how steam freed industry from muscle, wind, and water — and set the world in motion.

The short answer

For ten thousand years, every machine on earth ran on the same three fuels: muscle, wind, and water. Then an ironmonger from Devon bottled thunder — and humanity gained a source of power that owed nothing to weather, geography, or living things. The world has been accelerating ever since.

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From flooded coal mines to the machine that unchained energy itself: how steam freed industry from muscle, wind, and water — and set the world in motion.…

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