The Early Diffusion of the Steam Engine in Britain, 1700–1800: A Reappraisal

Read this article about how the use of steam power spread throughout England. It also explains the early technological developments in harnessing steam power.

Notes

  1. This emphasis on the importance of geography is actually also somewhat implicit in the Crafts and Harley position via the emphasis given specificities of the growth experience of the (Lancashire) cotton industry.
  2. A study similar to the one carried out in this paper has been performed by Atack et al. for the adoption and regional diffusion of steam power in the United States over the period 1776–1900. In a study related to the present paper, Nuvolari and Verspagen examine the patterns of diffusion of the high pressure engine in Britain in the period 1800–1850.
  3. For this reason, Newcomen and Savery engines were also commonly termed "atmospheric" engines.
  4. A number of Newcomen engines were successfully used to raise water over a water wheel which, in turn, delivered rotary motion for factory machinery. This type of engine was usually called a "returning engine". One major limitation of this engine was that the inefficiency of the water-wheel was combined with the inefficiency of the engine. See Hills.
  5. See Kanefsky for a detailed account of the construction of the database.
  6. Other information available for some of the engines is the maker, the cylinder size and the horsepower.
  7. The results of a preliminary analysis of diffusion trends in the updated version of Kanefsky data-set have been reported in Nuvolari et al.. The list originally compiled by Kanefsky and Robey contained a total of 2,191 steam engines, the new updated dataset contains 2,279 engines. The updated version of the list has been kindly provided to us by John Kanefsky. Concerning Watt engines, the updated list by Kanefsky contains 479 engines. Tann on the basis of a careful examination of the Boulton and Watt papers considers this total too high. Her estimation of the engines constructed by Boulton and Watt by 1800 is 449. In this work, mainly for sake of convenience, we have utilised Kanefsky's list without attempting corrections.
  8. The source for the number of water wheels is Kanefsky and for coal prices von Tunzelmann.
  9. Note that maps 1, 2 and 3 show the distribution of Newcomen and Savery engines considered together. As a consequence, a more precise definition would be "atmospheric engines". Given the relatively small number of Savery engines installed, we have decided to ignore the distinction and maintain the most common usage of Newcomen engines.
  10. The most active licensee of the "Proprietors" was the partnership formed by Stonier Parrot and George Sparrow who were engaged in the erection of more than fifteen Newcomen engines. According to Flinn, the high number of engines erected in Warwick and Stafford (far in excess of the two counties' share in British coal production) is to be accounted for by the fact this was the "home stronghold" of the Parrot–Sparrow partnership. For an account of the activities of Stonier Parrot, see Rowlands.
  11. Kanefsky's data provide some quantitative support for this view. From 1710 to 1733, 95 Savery–Newcomen engines were constructed. This is approximately equal to 4 engines erected per year. In the period 1734–1774, instead, 442 engines were built, corresponding to 11 engines per year.
  12. Joseph Hornblower would decide to settle definitely in Cornwall. He was the grandfather of Jonathan, the inventor of the compound engine.
  13. For an account of these cases of early installation of Newcomen engines in Scotland, see Hills.
  14. The symmetric logistic curve has been employed by Atack et al. for providing a characterization of the diffusion process of steam power at regional level in the American case.
  15. See Dixon for an application to the case of hybrid corn studied by Griliches and Geroski for a more general discussion.
  16. It can be shown that in the case of the logistic \Delta t = {\frac{\ln 81}{b}} and in the case of the Richards equation \Delta t = {\frac{{\ln (10^{T} - 1)\,- \,\ln ((1/0.9)^{T} - 1)}}{b}}
  17. In the late 1760s and 1770s, Watt himself was involved in the installation of several Newcomen engines in Scotland. The erection of these engines provided Watt, who was until then acquainted only with experimental models, with a good deal of practical experience with the problems related with the installation and operation of full scale engines.
  18. In case of patents granted to multiple patentees with residence in different counties, each county was credited with one patent.
  19. One would expect that abundance of cheap water power in one county had a dilatory effect on steam engine diffusion. However, in many areas steam engines were used in combination of water wheels. In addition, a county characterized by intensive use of water power was likely to be endowed with a strong base of "millwrighting" skills that could have exerted a beneficial effect on the diffusion of steam power technology.
  20. In a famous letter to Watt, Boulton declining the offer of Watt and Roebuck (the first partner of Watt) of becoming the licensee of the Watt engine in three counties, wrote : "…I was excited by two motives to offer you my assistance which were love for you and love of a money-getting ingenious project. I presumed that your engine would require money, very accurate workmanship and extensive correspondence to make it turn to best advantage and that the best means of keeping up the reputation and doing the invention justice would be to keep the executive part out of the hands of the multitude of empirical engineers, who from ignorance, want of experience and want of necessary convenience would be very liable to produce bad and inaccurate workmanship; all of which would affect the reputation of the invention. To remedy which and produce the most profit, my idea was to settle a manufactory near to my own by the side of our canal where I would erect all the conveniences necessary for the completion of engines and from which manufactory we would serve all the world with engines of all sizes. By these means and your assistance we could engage and instruct some excellent workmen (with more excellent tools that would be worth any man's while to procure for one single engine) could execute the invention 20 per cent cheaper than it would be otherwise executed, and with a great difference of accuracy as there is between the blacksmith and the mathematical instrument maker. It would not be worth my while to make for three counties only, but I find it very well worth to make for all the world".
  21. For an account of the activities of local producers of atmospheric engines in Lancashire in the second half of the eighteenth century, see Musson and Robinson.
  22. In his Memoir of Matthew Boulton written in 1809, Watt stressed the role played by Boulton's entrepreneurial abilities (and by his extensive network of acquaintances) for the successful development of the engine partnership: "Boulton…possessed in a high degree the faculty of rendering any new invention of his own or others useful to the publick, by organizing and arranging the processes by which it could be carried on, as well as promoting the sale by his own exertions and by his numerous friends and correspondents".
  23. The engines constructed for the Albion Mills were among the first rotary double acting engines constructed by Boulton and Watt. The choice of a plant of the almost unprecedented size of the Albion Mills was meant to attract the maximum of attention towards the new engine. From a strictly economic point of view the undertaking was not successful. However, according to many contemporaries, following the purely "mechanical" success of the mill, double-acting rotary engines were adopted in a variety of industrial mills where direct rotary motion was needed. The engine erected at the Albion Mill also convinced some textile manufacturers in the North to install Boulton and Watt engines for powering their mills, see Hills.
  24. We have also estimated specifications including as explanatory variable the total number of patents granted over the period 1700–1800 (this may be though to capture a general level of inventive skills, rather than those related with steam engineering), but the variable was not significant.