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The invention of the steam locomotive
1st Century BC
1763
1773
1712
1850
1804
1780
1830
The Aeolipile
James Watt's Condenser
Thomas Newcomen's Atmospheric Engine
James Watt & Co. is formed
The Rocket on Rails
Watt creates the Steam Engine Governer
Greenwich Mean Time &
The Telegraph
Trevithick invents the steam railroad locomotive
James Watt builds on Newcomen's design and invents the condenser. This makes the steam engine 80% more efficient.
The first recorded steam engine.
A bronze sphere filled with water, when heated, steam emerges through outlets causing the sphere to rotate.
“Such a device was for the Greeks only a curiosity, not a useful source of power.”
Thomas Newcomen (blacksmith) invents his first stationary steam engine (The Atmsopheric Engine).
He designs the engine to pump water from coal mines, as the mining industry at this time had advanced to deeper, larger mines.
- Innovation as a build
George Stephenson creates The Rocket, a passenger railway locomotive that runs between Liverpool and Manchester.
A fare system was introduced to charge reasonable prices to ordinary people. This meant everyone could ride the train.
Over the next 20 years, the amount of railway would expand to 6,600 miles.
Watt & Matthew Boulton formed a partnership company to manufacture steam engines.
Victorian entrepreneurship laws allow companies to seek private investors with limited liability, making it possible to gather 'Venture Capital'.
As a result of the availability and realiability of the steam engine, it becomes adopted in other industries to power weaving looms and factories.
- Innovation as a curiosity
The proliferation of the rail network meant that time had to be standardised across England. Prior to this, time had been set by the position of the noon sun in each village.
This led to the creation of Greenwich Mean Time and the widespread adoption of the telegraph to communicate standard time.
Watt builds on the steam engine again and creates the steam-engine governer, a feedback mechanism that detects input of steam and regulates it to ensure a steady supply of power.
The idea of a self-regulating mechanism that requires no human intervention inspires other inventors like Charles Babbage and influences the creation of feedback loops in other types of machines.
- Innovation based on market need
Trevithick was fascinated by the potential of high pressure steam. He invented the first high-pressure steam engine, which deivered much more power than Watt and Newcomen's Atmospheric engines.
He reasoned that his engine could now be more compact, lighter and small enough to carry its own weight even with a carriage attached.
- Innovation as a system
- Innovation aided by entrepreneurship
- Innovation that inspires
- Innovation proliferating upon innovations
- Technology driving innovation