Steam Engines in 18th-Century Britain: A Quantitative Assessment

Abstract

In recent years much interest has been focused on the question of the provision of power in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, especially on the period around the end of the 18th century. Lord's misleading and incorrect statements about the number of engines built by Boulton and Watt, and the supposed near-monopoly of engine construction enjoyed by that firm, have now been firmlyi disproved.1 Just over ten years ago, a tentative assessment by John Harris of the number of steam engines built in the 18th century published in History suggested that a possible total of 1,330 might be conservative.2 Since then Harris has revised his estimate to over 2,000 in the light of the work of Duckham on the Scottish coalfields,3 that of Allen on the early Newcomen engine,4 and from correspondence with one of the present authors, though his suggestion that over half the steam power employed in Britain before 1800 was in coal mines probably overstates the case.5