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A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Is Australia an Island?

Where Did the Idea for the Magic 8 Ball Come From?

Sergeant Stubby or also known as Mascot Stubby. Unofficial mascot dog of the 102nd Infantry Regiment of the United States with the 26th (Yankee) Division in World War I. War dog. Possibly a Boston terrier - also sometimes described as a Boston bull terrier

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The Castillo, a Toltec-style pyramid, rises 79 feet (24 meters) above the plaza at Chichen Itza in Yucatan state, Mexico. The pyramid was built after invaders conquered the ancient Maya city in the tenth century.

What’s Inside the Pyramid at Chichén Itzá?

Charles Darwin, carbon print photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868.

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Town of Sisimiut located on the coast of the Davis Strait on Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay, Greenland

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George Stephenson summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see George Stephenson.

George Stephenson, (born June 9, 1781, Wylam, Northumberland, Eng.—died Aug. 12, 1848, Chesterfield, Derbyshire), English engineer, principal inventor of the locomotive. Son of a coal-mine mechanic, he himself became chief mechanic at a coal mine, where his interest in steam engines led to experiments on a machine to pull coal-filled cars out of the mines. In 1815 he devised a powerful “steam blast” system that made the locomotive practical. In 1825 he built a steam locomotive for the first passenger railway, from Stockton to Darlington, which could carry 450 people at 15 mph (24 km/hr). In 1829, assisted by his son Robert Stephenson, he built his improved locomotive, the Rocket, which won a speed competition at 36 mph (58 km/hr) and became the model for later locomotives. His company built all eight locomotives for the new Liverpool-Manchester railway (1830).

steam engine Summary

Steam engine, machine using steam power to perform mechanical work through the agency of heat. (Read James Watt’s 1819 Britannica essay on the steam engine.) A brief treatment of steam engines follows. For full treatment of steam power and production and of steam engines and turbines, see Energy

Understand motion magnification, a technique enabling researchers to monitor tiny vibrations in infrastructure

engineering Summary

Engineering, the application of science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of humankind. The field has been defined by the Engineers Council for Professional Development, in the United States, as the creative application of “scientific principles to design or develop

civil engineering Summary

Civil engineering, the profession of designing and executing structural works that serve the general public, such as dams, bridges, aqueducts, canals, highways, power plants, sewerage systems, and other infrastructure. The term was first used in the 18th century to distinguish the newly recognized

locomotive Summary

Locomotive, any of various self-propelled vehicles used for hauling railroad cars on tracks. Although motive power for a train-set can be incorporated into a car that also has passenger, baggage, or freight accommodations, it most often is provided by a separate unit, the locomotive, which includes

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Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Abstract vector hi speed internet technology background

History of Technology Timeline

Illustration by the CDC, reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes on the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus,

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The Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. (ancient architecture; architectural ruins)

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Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics

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8 Famous Animals

steam engine summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see steam engine.

steam engine, Machine that uses steam power to perform mechanical work through the agency of heat (hence a prime mover). In a steam engine, hot steam, usually supplied by a boiler, expands under pressure, and part of the heat energy is converted into work. The rest of the heat may be allowed to escape, or, for maximum engine efficiency, the steam may be condensed in a separate apparatus, a condenser, at comparatively low temperature and pressure. For high efficiency, the steam must decrease substantially in temperature as it expands within the engine. The most efficient performance (i.e., the greatest output of work in relation to the heat supplied) is obtained by using a low condenser temperature and a high boiler pressure. See also Thomas Newcomen, James Watt.

George Stephenson Summary

George Stephenson was an English engineer and principal inventor of the railroad locomotive. Stephenson was the son of a mechanic who operated a Newcomen atmospheric-steam engine that was used to pump out a coal mine at Newcastle upon Tyne. The boy went to work at an early age and without formal

James Watt on the steam engine Summary

Among the pleasures to be derived from venturing through the early editions of Britannica is the one we think of as “being present at the creation.” Steam engines had been around as novelties for centuries, but the first practical ones were invented by the Englishmen Thomas Savery in 1698 and

Richard Trevithick, detail of an oil painting by John Linnell, 1816; in the Science Museum, London.

Richard Trevithick Summary

Richard Trevithick was a British mechanical engineer and inventor who successfully harnessed high-pressure steam and constructed the world’s first steam railway locomotive (1803). In 1805, he adapted his high-pressure engine to driving an iron-rolling mill and to propelling a barge with the aid of

Oliver Evans Summary

Oliver Evans was an American inventor who pioneered the high-pressure steam engine (U.S. patent, 1790) and created the first continuous production line (1784). Evans was apprenticed to a wheelwright at the age of 16. Observing the trick of a blacksmith’s boy who used the propellant force of steam