Steam Engines?

Question

Hi, I'm stuck with my homework, can anyone help please?

why has the steam engine made Britain great?

Thanks

Answer 1

it was this which was used not just in trains but as a power source for mines etc.

it essentially gave the UK a head start on rest of the world by  moving loads  and people faster and  cheaper. thus it started the era known a the industrial revolution.

Answer 2

Prior to the steam engine power was provided by either animal power (usually the horse) or water, via a wheel. For tractive power the horse provided a sedate continuous pace of some 5 mph, and though it can run freely at some 45 mph when pulling a load it would be lucky to reach 15 and then only for a few minutes.

Tractive power directly from a steam engine came as a secondary usage, the primary role of the steam engine in Britain's Industrial Revolution (from about 1740 onwards) was to provide power for machines. One steam engine could drive a belt which would then drive wheels, attached to which were more belts that could drive a machine directly. This speeded up the working rate of a machine manyfold (previously many were driven by a foot treadle operated by the operator of the machine or in some cases a boy) and was particularly important in the textile trades. British mills could spin hundreds of yards of cotton for every one yard of a foreign counterpart. The practical upshot was that British cloth became far cheaper than anybody else's and was made to a much better consistency and quality.

British engineering machines could also be driven by steam and thus their products too became consistent, good quality and cheap, and in times of war armaments could be made far more quickly.

Trevithick first married steam engines and tractive power in the early 1800s but the railway was largely a creation of Stevenson, Locke, Hudson and myriad others. It is difficult these days to appreciate how the railway was of vital importance to the nation even as little as 50 years ago.

Now cheap goods could be transported en masse anywhere in the country making the transport cost vastly reduced and so rendering them cheaper still. They could also be transported to ports, and from there on to steam powered ships, and from there to the world. Coal and other necessary manufacturing materials could be brought from anywhere to anywhere else in bulk.

Hope this gives you some clues!

Answer 3

Go to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Engin... , there is so much there about steam engine and sterlin engines.  You will read for hours on it.

Answer 4

It was the invention of steam powered pumps to keep water from mines that provided the impetus to start the Industrial Revolution.

The steam engine was then developed to power machinery in factories so production of anything (from fabrics to iron products) increased exponentially.

Prior to the steam engine the machinery was driven either by water or horse power.

The steam engines were more powerful than water or horses, didn't need so much human intervention, did not tire, ran on cheap coal.

When George Stephenson produced "Rocket" (the world's first SUCCESSFUL steam locomotive design, and the functioning  model on which future railway giants were based) it was apparent that Steam revolutionised transport for ever.