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In 1710 work was done mainly by muscle power, there were little machines other than
water and windmills. The problem though was these forms of power were unreliable,
when the wind stopped blowing or the water stopped running so did the machines.
Places where there was an abundant supply of wind and water tend to be in remote
areas so it was hard to find staff willing to work the mills. All of these dilemmas lead
to experiments with possible new types of energy, one of them was steam power.
Back 200 years ago to get anywhere you will have to go by horse, which is a long and
bumpy
ride, and if you weren't rich enough to own a horse, walking was the only
choice. If you lived in Canada and wanted to visit
you cousin in England the only way across the Atlantic is by ship. Since the ship relies on the wind to navigate it is an unreliable and
slow form of transportation. Not only will you find dramatic differences from our life in transportation but also in the household. At
night the only form of light is an oil lamp, or the fireplace, which also serves as a heater.
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Large cities were almost non-existent because so much of the population was needed to be farmers so there would be enough food
for all in the country. The reason for the necessity of farmers was because to plough the fields, scatter the seeds, watering the crop,
and harvesting had to be all done by muscle energy agricultural, human and animal. After the crop was harvested and it was time to
turn grain to flour, the machine to do the job was the water or windmill, both of, which were unreliable and slow. Factories were
non-efficient because there were no machines especially in the looming and mining areas. Clothing was made by hand and flooded
mines had to be drained out by workers. The result of all this was that most countries in the world were agricultural but everything will
soon change with the introduction a powerful source of energy called steam.
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In the early 19th century things were changing rapidly in the world starting in England, more efficient ways of farming were found so a
smaller percentage of the population had to be farmers to feed the country. These extra people went into towns boosting the
populations. Most of them became factory workers where machines had made it easier to mass-produce once handmade items
with the help of machines such as the power loom. Prices of items went down because it was cheaper to produce so the ordinary
person's life improved with the availability to more items. Then Industrial Revolution advanced onto a new track with the invention of
the practical steam engine by James Watt.
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