[Professional Engineer]

1736 James Watt Scotland, inventor (steam engine)

I tell ya', this whole Industrial Revolution thing just might lead somewhere.

[Iris7]

The "Industrial Revolution" so far has been figuring out how to use fossil fuels. Ran out of wood to make charcoal to make steel, steel needed for weapons, substituted coal, which was on the surface in Britain in those days. Coal substituted for wood as a fuel for general use, space heating, etc., mines got deep, had to be dewatered, Newcomen, then Bolten-Watt, and shift to steam for spinning and weaving from water power, cheaper cast iron and steel because of cheaper fuel replaced wood and hand wrought iron in machine (weapon) making, and so big fabric plants could be built, etc.