Steam Engine - Part 4

The other sources of power used for transportation and industry in 1860 were wind and water, but steam had advantages over these that were transforming various aspects of daily life. Wind provided the means by which large cargoes could be transported along the coast and across the ocean at relatively little cost. Indeed, until the advent of steam vessels provided an alternative and faster means of transportation afloat, the wind, the weather and the tide largely determined the duration of the voyage. Steam made the voyage more expensive, so most cargoes continued to travel under sail when speed was not required. Inland, the current could make sailing up a river a slow and difficult task, but steam turned rivers into inland highways. Wind was used only for limited industrial applications on land because its variability made it unreliable and its limited strength restricted the number of tasks it could perform.

Water generally was a more constant source of power than wind and was capable of doing more work. Sites suitable for providing water power, however, were limited -- one needed a source of flowing water and adjacent land that could be developed with a millrace and other improvement to convert the water’s flow into mechanical power. Needless to say, water is a stationary source of power that is tied to a fixed point on the map where nature provided the water and man provided the means to exploit it. Thus, in an era dominated by waterpower, one brought the factory to where the power was. And while water might power the movement of vehicles in its immediate vicinity, a self-propelled vehicle was impossible.

The effects of steam power on production were twofold. Steam power meant that the factory could be built anywhere, not just where water power was available, and steam dramatically reduced the cost of transportation inland and overland, which opened up more of the country to diverse industrial economic production. Any land might be valuable as the potential site of a factory, not just land adjacent to a river or stream. Moreover, although the steam engine -- necessarily including its boiler and the fuel required to produce steam -- might be large, it generated enough power to propel itself as well as additional cargo, either on the water or in a wheeled vehicle set on rails. Ultimately the cost to transport goods upriver by steamboat or overland by railroad fell sharply in contrast to other available means of transportation. With the cost of overland transportation reduced, the cheap and bulky raw materials could be brought from a distance to the factory, and finished goods could be produced at a cost low enough so that they could sell at a price that recouped all the costs and made a profit.

Steam power had a profound effect not only upon the course of industrial and economic development but also on how people worked and lived.