James Watt and the age of steam power. Wikimedia Commons.
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Steam engines existed before James Watt, but Watt’s improvements in the eighteenth century made them substantially more efficient. Working with manufacturer Matthew Boulton, he developed engines that could provide rotary power for machinery. Steam power reduced dependence on rivers as factory locations and became important in mining, manufacturing and later transport. The steam engine did not single-handedly cause the Industrial Revolution; changes in finance, labour, resources, agriculture and technology all mattered. Nevertheless, reliable mechanical power became one of the era’s defining forces.
