Technology's History

The basic argument is that without a clear use case to overcome the version 1.0 troubles of (steam) engines, there was no incentive to work out the kinks and pumping water out of coal mines was the big "killer application" of such motors. That is, pumping water out of coal mines was the "early adopter" market for engine technology:

> As we’ll see, this was a use-case that didn’t really exist in the ancient world and indeed existed almost nowhere but Britain even in the period where it worked.

I remember reading a blog post by TechnicsHistory [0] (which was on the front page of HN at one point) that makes the same argument.

The acoup.blog article goes on to give a reason why coal wasn't needed earlier as the need for heating fuel became scarce when wood became scarce:

> Consequently wood as a heat fuel was scarce and so beginning in the 16th century we see a marked shift over to coal as a heating fuel for things like cooking and home heating.

I'm still skeptical of why it took so long. Were there no other places in Europe, Asia or the Middle East that didn't have the same deforestation issues? Was it the combination of deforestation and population density?

[0] https://technicshistory.com/2021/07/13/the-triumvirate-coal-iron-and-steam/

https://technicshistory.com/2017/01/29/the-relay/

> In 1837, American scientist and teacher Joseph Henry took his first tour of Europe. During his visit to London, he made a point of visiting a man he greatly admired, the mathematician Charles Babbage. Accompanying Henry were his friend Alexander Bache, and his new acquaintance and fellow experimenter in telegraphy, Charles Wheatstone. Babbage told his visitors of his upcoming appointment to demonstrate a calculating machine to a member of Parliament, but was even more excited to show them his plans for another machine, “which will far transcend the powers of the first…” Henry recorded the outlines of Babbage’s plan in his diary.

So close! Henry made the electromagnet practical. Babbage "originated the concept of a digital programmable computer" as per Wikipedia.

That Creatures of Thought blog [0] is great. I recommend starting at the beginning as the author gives a pretty strong history of the development of electronics and communications starting around the discovery of electricity to the modern day. I've been working my way through it for weeks and it's been consistently interesting. One of the key themes is how much technological development is intertwined, each person or team building on or coincidently paralleling others.

[0] https://technicshistory.com
[1] https://technicshistory.com/2016/11/13/about-techno-history/

"It was used in steam engines to translate circular motion into rectilinear. The full mechanism is shown in Fig. 6, where Watt’s parallelogram is the upper part of it. The machine transforms the circular motion of the point KK through the rocking of the points EE and BB into an almost rectilinear motion of the points MM and CC, which enables a truly rectilinear motion of the piston SS, but with some side tension."

I am pretty sure it is the other way around ?

https://technicshistory.com/2021/10/10/the-steam-revolution/