

And more importantly, he found out a way to make this back-and-forth motion turn a wheel. Watt figured out a way to push a piston back and forth in its cyclinder. This all changed in 1763, when James Watt, a Scottish engineer, set out to improve upon Newcomen's design. Neither Savery nor Newcomen had any grander purpose in mind for their machines. This true "steam engine" was also used to pump water out of coal mines. Newcomen built a machine where the steam actually pushed a movable piston in one direction. Newcomen knew that there must be a way of improvingon Savery's inefficient steam powered pump. The next stage in the history of the steam engine was a result of the work of Thomas Newcomen, also of England. However, it would be fair to say tha Savery was the first person to find a practical way of using steam to perform useful work. To say it was a steam engine would be to stretch the world "engine" far beyond its current meaning. It also used up lots and lots of coal just to pump a small quantity of water. This machine was so simple that it had no moving parts. Savery built his machine to help pump water out of coal mines. The first crude steam powered machine was built by Thomas Savery, of England, in 1698. The steam engine was developed over a period of about a hundred years by three British inventors. To give credit to any one person would be to steal credit away from its many rightful owners. The steam engine was not so much invented as developed. But where did the steam engine come from? Who was the inventor of this "mover of mountains?" Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that steam engines ushered in the modern age. And these factories themselves were powered by the steam engine. It's common knowledge that modern civilization was forged in the factories of the industrial revolution.
