A Brief History of the Age of Steam

In 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invented a machine with a pump driven by coal, used to extract water from mines. Over the next two hundred years the steam engine would be at the heart of the industrial revolution that changed the fortunes of nations.

Passionately written and insightful, A Brief History of the Age of Steam reveals not just the lives of the great

inventors such as Watts, Stephenson and Brunel, but also tells a narrative that reaches from the US to the expansion of China, India and South America. Crump shows how the steam engine changed the world.

“Passionate and entertaining”

- BBC History Magazine

Thomas Crump was the author of A Brief History of Science. His lifelong passionate interest in science and its history gave rise to a number of books, including Solar Eclipse and The Anthropology of Numbers. A mathematician and anthropologist, until his retirement in 1994, he taught anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.

In 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invented a machine with a pump driven by coal, used to extract water from mines. Over the next two hundred years the steam engine would be at the heart of the industrial revolution that changed the fortunes of nations.Passionately written and insightful, A Brief History of the Age of Steam reveals not just the lives of the greatinventors such as Watts, Stephenson and Brunel, but also tells a narrative that reaches from the US to the expansion of China, India and South America. Crump shows how the steam engine changed the world.

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