The Steam Revolution (Overview 3)
When James Watt invented an efficient steam engine (patented 1769) it brought revolutionary possibilties to transportation and industrial technology.
By providing a new power source, superior in most cases to both horses and sail, the steam engine changed the world. With the advent of railroads and steamships that could voyage against winds or currents people, goods, and information could travel more quickly than ever before, although information technology was not too far away from being "faster than a speeding locomotive". By the mid 19th century telegraphs transmitted information far faster than the fastest trains, and took a large part of that function away from transportation.
The invention of the steam engine by James Watt and its first commercial use in a ship by Robert Fulton began the slow painful demise of the great sailing ships though many stayed in service for nearly another century and some a century and a half. The steam engine also made the first real advance in land transport since the horse and wagon possible. Railroads and locomotives became the new big movers on land, and coupled with steamships began a transportation revolution that ushered in the modern industrial age, also powered by steam engines at its inception.
From the dawn of the industrial age to the early 21st Century transportation innovations came at an astonishing rate. Internal combustion engines developed late in the 19th century led to automobiles, airplanes, and other new technologies. The jet engine, and the rocket engine enabled men to fly at astonishing speeds, break the sound barrier, and travel in outer space. Although early rockets merely delivered small capsules into orbit, space travel soon saw a reusable vehicle in the space shuttle.
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