Abstract
THE PRIME MOVER IN examining the picture of the prime mover I shall look at it through the spectacles of the scientist, and endeavour to find out why the industrial revolution came when it did and not thousands of years before, and why Hero's steam engine of two thousand years ago was never more than a toy. The reason was not that the brains of Hero were not as good as those of James Watt or Trevithick, for whatever the claims may be of the engineer, he does not claim to have markedly improved the thinking power of the human race.
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SMITH, F. The Engineer and Modern Civilisation*. Nature 134, 126–129 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134126a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134126a0