The Industrial Revolution began with a change in the minds of some people in the 1600's but one of the first practical applications of this new mindset was the atmospheric engine invented by Newcomen. For the first time, men had an engine that used a transportable energy source.
Thomas Newcomen may come to be seen as the man who, although he didn’t necessarily sign humanity’s death warrant, certainly wrote the first draft. Clearly he didn’t have the benefit of hindsight, and removing water from mines was a good idea, but once humanity had a taste of the power that fossil fuels could give, and the extraordinarily concentrated energy they embodied, we were hooked. The rest, as they say, is history.
My response
Newcomen wrote the first draft of humanity’s death warrant!! What myopia! What a great example of being caught in the intellectual mire of our own time! We are in the midst of a great challenge but why be caught by the most pessimistic viewpoint of the outcome. A more realistic outcome will be achieved by people like Newcomen. People, who take a chance. People, who engineer. People, who will move our civilization off carbon based energy to the newer forms that are talked of everywhere on this Internet. Listen! We are about to revolutionize energy production. Look at the number of articles! This is not the world of the 1970’s . Luddites take ten giant steps to the rear. The future does not favor your position. Newcomen is the technical father of that world to come as well as this one. I’ll be contributing to his monument fund.
This engine was the master of simplicity, but it never would have existed without scientific interest in atmospheric pressure.
