Abstract
IN March 1776 in the reign of George III, Johnson and Boswell spent a few days in Birmingham, and the latter, accompanied by Johnson's old schoolfellow Hector, took the opportunity to see the famous Soho Manufactory of Boulton and Watt. During Boswell's tour through the shops where parts of the engines of Watt were being constructed, Boulton with pardonable pride remarked to him: “Here, Sir, I sell what all the world desires to have—Power”. Only half a century had passed since Newcomen, in the reign of George I, by the invention of the atmospheric pumping engine, had ushered in the age of steam power, but already steam engines were being erected in mines, factories, breweries and works on an increasing scale, and five years later Boulton wrote to Watt, “The people of London, Manchester and Birmingham are steam-mill mad”. Great pioneers as they were, neither Watt nor Boulton, however, visualised the important part steam was destined to play in industry and transport, or that before the death of George III steam would be applied to ships and locomotives. Year by year the demand for power grew; by 1840 the steam engines of the world were estimated to have an aggregate of more than 2,000,000 horse-power, and a century after Boulton had spoken of London, Manchester and Birmingham as being steam-mill mad, the total horse power of stationary and marine steam engines and steam locomotives in the world was estimated at about 30,000,000.
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SMITH, EC. Progress in Turbine Machinery. Nature 135, 753–755 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135753a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135753a0