Energy Atlas

How The World Is Powered
Milestones

First Practical Steam Engine

1712

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Thomas Newcomen installed his atmospheric steam engine at a coal mine near Dudley, England, in 1712, the first machine to convert fuel into sustained mechanical work at commercial scale. For the first time in history, work was no longer limited to muscle, wind and water, the threshold on which the Industrial Revolution stands.

Facts
Milestone Year
1712 1
Location
Dudley, England 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Sources
1. Energy and Civilization: A History
Vaclav Smil, MIT Press, 2017
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