4 minute read
INTRODUCTION
by Collins
This process wasted huge amounts of energy. So, Watt started to design a steam engine with a separate cold condenser attached to the cylinder for 1 3.1 cooling the steam, which allowed the cylinder to remain permanently hot. For 11 years, Watt struggled to make his cold condenser work. In 1774, he moved from Glasgow to Birmingham, to become business partners with a wealthy factory owner called Matthew Boulton. While Watt could be rather gloomy, Boulton was a cheery, optimistic man. With the help of Boulton’s money and encouragement, Watt built his fi rst two functioning steam engines in 1776. One was used to pump water out of a coal mine in Staffordshire, the other to power bellows for a blast furnace in Shropshire. Newcomen’s fi rst engine in 1712 required 20 kilograms of coal per horsepower hour, while Watt’s fi rst engine required just 2 kilograms of coal per horsepower hour. Watt’s steam engine was signifi cantly more effi cient, and demand spread throughout Britain. When James Boswell visited Matthew Boulton’s factory in Birmingham in 1776, Boulton told him: “I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have – power”. In 1781, Watt and Boulton devised a method for turning the ‘up and down’ motion of their engine into a rotation motion using a ‘sun and planet gear’, which spun a large wheel. This innovation greatly expanded the steam engine’s potential. Engineers could now develop more uses for steam engines, such as lifting heavy materials, pressing oils from seeds, and crushing sugar. By 1800, there were 451 in use across Britain. Over the course of the 19th century, the power created by steam engines was harnessed to weave textiles, harvest wheat, power trains, print newspapers, and eventually create electricity. James Watt died aged 83, a very wealthy man. His steam engine had liberated humankind from its dependence on wind, water and muscle as sources of power, by unlocking the energy within fossil fuels. More than any other invention, Watt’s steam engine can be said to have created the industrial revolution.
Painting of one of Watt and Boulton’s steam engines pumping water out of a coal mine, 1790s Fact Watt struggled for years to build his fi rst steam engine, and suffered frequent bouts of selfdoubt. In January 1771, Watt wrote in his diary, “Today I entered the 35th year of my life & I think I have hardly done 35 pence worth of good in the world but I cannot help it.”
Check your understanding
1. What was Newcomen’s fi rst steam engine used for? 2. Why was it cost-effective to use Newcomen’s steam engine in coal mines? 3. How did James Watt’s steam engine improve on the design of Thomas Newcomen? 4. What purposes were Watt’s fi rst two steam engines used for? 5. What purposes were Watt’s steam engines used for during the 19th century?
The period from the late 17th to early 19th centuries was known as the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. It was a time when new ideas, science and philosophy fl ourished and challenged the existing political and social order.
The guiding principle of the Enlightenment was to gather knowledge about the known world and use reason to question traditional authority. Enlightenment thinkers made important scientifi c discoveries and suggested new ways that political reforms could encourage progress and improve people’s lives. Infl uential books and essays on these new ideas were distributed across Europe and widely discussed, laying the foundations of modern intellectual thought and enquiry.
Theories of government
Men gather to read the French writer and philosopher Voltaire
Starting in the 17th century, Enlightenment philosophers questioned the traditional authority of monarchies and religion. In England, the chaos of the English Civil War (1642–51) sparked new conversations about the relationships between power and the people. Philosophers argued that a government’s authority came from citizens consenting to be governed, known as the social contract.
Thomas Hobbes argued that humans are naturally fl awed and only a strong, authoritarian ruler can maintain order and hierarchy in society. Citizens therefore give up many of their rights for the protection the ruler can give them, which is better than trying to change the role of the state. Hobbes’ ideas were widely used by conservatives to defend authoritarian rule. In contrast, John Locke argued that humans are born “blank slates” and only gain knowledge through experience. This challenged the idea of social hierarchies by suggesting that those with power were not born to rule. He favoured equality and freedom, arguing that rulers should not oppress their people and instead allow religious toleration. The state’s role should be limited to protecting its citizens’ freedoms and property. The Swiss philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau built on this by encouraging people to question authority fi gures and how they exercise their power. This became known as liberalism.
In France, Charles de Montesquieu argued for a separation of powers between the government, an elected parliament and legal judges. This would mean that power was shared and balanced between those who enforce the law, those who write the law and those who interpret the law. Another philosopher, Thomas Paine, even argued that citizens have the power to overthrow the government if it does not serve or represent them as they wish. The American and French Revolutions (see Unit 6, Chapter 1 and Unit 7, Chapter 2) were directly inspired by these liberal ideas.
Fact
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) summarised the Enlightenment with the Latin phrase sapere aude, meaning ‘dare to know’.
