James Watt and Steam Power

This primary source portfolio follows the development of steam power from its earliest known application, by Hero of Alexandria in A.D. 100, to its use as an economically satisfactory power source by James Watt. The broad principles of the steam engine are explained, but this portfolio concentrates on the social and economic consequences of the harnessing of steam power and draws a parallel between the effect of the new machines and the coming of automation in our own times. Photographs, documents, diagrams, engravings, and a map are presented to bring the subject close to the reader. This portfolio includes reproducible student activities. 6 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * Watt's Steam Engine * Hero's Magic Machines * Savery and Newcomen * James Watt * Steam and Machines * Steam and People 9 Primary Source Documents: * Portrait of James Watt, engraved from the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, with a facsimile of Watt's signature * A page from a manuscript copy of Hero's Pneumatics, in the original Greek * Engraving of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine erected in 1712 at Dudley * The entry of James Watt's specification for his steam engine in the Close Rolls a the Public Record Office * Watt's single action pumping engine and rotative engine, photographs, and diagrams * Letter from Robert Fulton ordering an engine for his steamboat * Contemporary illustrations of the first steamship, first railway locomotive, and an early steam coach * Population map of Great Britain in 1841 * The uses of steam power: a pictorial chart