In 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger, Thomas Newcomen, invented a machine with a pump driven by coal, used to extract water from mines. Over the next two hundred years the steam engine would be at the heart of the industrial revolution that changed the fortunes of nations.

Passionately written and insightful, this book explores not just the lives of the great inventors such as Watt, Stephenson, and Brunel but also tells a narrative that reaches from North America to Africa, Asia, and South American. The world changed and the consequences are still being felt today.