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The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
If all measures of human advancement in the last hundred centuries were plotted on a graph, they would show an almost perfectly flat line—until the eighteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution would cause the line to shoot straight up, beginning an almost uninterrupted march of progress.
In The Most Powerful Idea in the World , William Rosen tells the story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution and the machine that drove it—the steam engine. In the process he tackles the question that has obsessed historians ever What made eighteenth-century Britain such fertile soil for inventors? Rosen’s answer focuses on a simple notion that had become enshrined in British law the century that people had the right to own and profit from their ideas.
The result was a period of frantic innovation revolving particularly around the promise of steam power. Rosen traces the steam engine’s history from its early days as a clumsy but sturdy machine, to its coming-of-age driving the wheels of mills and factories, to its maturity as a transporter for people and freight by rail and by sea. Along the way we enter the minds of such inventors as Thomas Newcomen and James Watt, scientists including Robert Boyle and Joseph Black, and philosophers John Locke and Adam Smith—all of whose insights, tenacity, and ideas transformed first a nation and then the world.
William Rosen is a masterly storyteller with a keen eye for the “aha!” moments of invention and a gift for clear and entertaining explanations of science. The Most Powerful Idea in the World will appeal to readers fascinated with history, science, and the hows and whys of innovation itself.
In The Most Powerful Idea in the World , William Rosen tells the story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution and the machine that drove it—the steam engine. In the process he tackles the question that has obsessed historians ever What made eighteenth-century Britain such fertile soil for inventors? Rosen’s answer focuses on a simple notion that had become enshrined in British law the century that people had the right to own and profit from their ideas.
The result was a period of frantic innovation revolving particularly around the promise of steam power. Rosen traces the steam engine’s history from its early days as a clumsy but sturdy machine, to its coming-of-age driving the wheels of mills and factories, to its maturity as a transporter for people and freight by rail and by sea. Along the way we enter the minds of such inventors as Thomas Newcomen and James Watt, scientists including Robert Boyle and Joseph Black, and philosophers John Locke and Adam Smith—all of whose insights, tenacity, and ideas transformed first a nation and then the world.
William Rosen is a masterly storyteller with a keen eye for the “aha!” moments of invention and a gift for clear and entertaining explanations of science. The Most Powerful Idea in the World will appeal to readers fascinated with history, science, and the hows and whys of innovation itself.
370 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2010
About the author
William Rosen
13 books71 followersWilliam Rosen was an historian and author who previously was an editor an publisher at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and the Free Press for nearly twenty-five years. He lived in Princeton, New Jersey.
From recent obituary
William Rosen PRINCETON JUNCTION Author William Rosen, 61, whose works of narrative nonfiction include "Justinian's Flea" and "The Most Powerful Idea in the World: The Story of Steam, Industry and Invention," died at home on April 28, 2016, of gastrointestinal stromal cancer, according to his agent. Born in California, Rosen worked for nearly 25 years as an editor and publisher at Macmillan, Simon and Schuster and the Free Press before becoming an author. With a writing style that used anecdotes to pull together the threads of discovery and innovation, Rosen authored or co-authored books on education, traffic, antibiotics, and climate change. Bill Gates said of Rosen's work, "Rosen argues that only with the ability to measure incremental advances--such as whether a lighter part lowers fuel consumption, or one engine produces more power than another--can you achieve sustained innovation. Rosen's view fits my own view of the power of measurement." Rosen grew up in Los Angeles, CA, attended UCLA and, after a brief stint at John Wiley and Sons, moved east for publishing. He edited books authored by George Will, as well as William Bennett, Bernard Lewis, Maya Lin, and Leon Kass. But he found true fulfillment writing books instead of only publishing them.
From recent obituary
William Rosen PRINCETON JUNCTION Author William Rosen, 61, whose works of narrative nonfiction include "Justinian's Flea" and "The Most Powerful Idea in the World: The Story of Steam, Industry and Invention," died at home on April 28, 2016, of gastrointestinal stromal cancer, according to his agent. Born in California, Rosen worked for nearly 25 years as an editor and publisher at Macmillan, Simon and Schuster and the Free Press before becoming an author. With a writing style that used anecdotes to pull together the threads of discovery and innovation, Rosen authored or co-authored books on education, traffic, antibiotics, and climate change. Bill Gates said of Rosen's work, "Rosen argues that only with the ability to measure incremental advances--such as whether a lighter part lowers fuel consumption, or one engine produces more power than another--can you achieve sustained innovation. Rosen's view fits my own view of the power of measurement." Rosen grew up in Los Angeles, CA, attended UCLA and, after a brief stint at John Wiley and Sons, moved east for publishing. He edited books authored by George Will, as well as William Bennett, Bernard Lewis, Maya Lin, and Leon Kass. But he found true fulfillment writing books instead of only publishing them.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
June 19, 2016
*interview on the Daily Show
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon... *
Reviewers Note: rereading/listening to this for the 3-4th time and taking more notes.
Like Malcolm Gladwell, Jared Diamond and James Burke, William Rosen asks an interesting question about success and society. The question is : Why did the Industrial Revolution occur in the British Isles instead of India, China, Eastern Europe, South America? I'm found this topic interesting as I think about the need for innovation regarding today's energy needs.
This book offers his theories and provides the history of this invention revolution. As a historical view, it lacks detailed engineering information and illustrations. This can be found on the web or other books.
Since I would like to refer back to his explanation and supporting facts, I'm writing some here.
His premise of why the Industrial Revolution occurred in Britian
"The best explanation for the preeminence of English speakers in lifting humanity out of it's 10,000 year long Malthusian trap is the Anglophone world democratized the nature of invention."
Factoids:
World population grew 100 fold between 500 BCE and 1600ce from 5 to 500 million. Everyone ate the same amount of food, lived the same number of years and buried the same amounts of children. The worldwide GDP (in 1990 $) in 800 GCE was the same for 1600 England about $ 583.
On average, a baby born in France in 1800 lived 25 fewer years than a baby born in the Republic of Congo in 2000.
The Crofton Pump station uses an original Watts engine and is the oldest steam engine used for it's original purpose. https://goo.gl/1peh6g
Abbott Payson Usher- described the four steps of inventing.
4th Century laborer - works 3 hours for a pound of bread
1800 laborer - 2hours
1900 - 20 minutes
Today- 5 minutes
There are by popular consensus over 200 explanations for the cause of the Industrial Revolution .ie;ranging from Max Weber theory on Protestantism more congenial to innovation, China's lack of raw material esp. coal, England absence of internal tariffs & landowning peasant shortage made it a short leap to IR, GB people ate more beef than the French, population shortage from plague made labor expensive. Additional theories found here: https://goo.gl/CkUyiw
The industries of Coal, Iron, Steam Engines, Cotton and Railroads were connected and created an infinite loop of innovation. The Steam Engine was needed to pump water out of coal mines, coal was used to make iron that was used to make steam engines, improvements in the steam engines were required to cost effectively replace water wheels in textile factories, trains moved the cotton. This connected economy brought about big and incremental improvements in small and large machinery,manufacturing techniques, design,information sharing and scientific understanding,
Thousands of innovations were necessary for steam power to work and thousand on innovations were created due to it's invention.
Because Europe had more Artisans than Scientists, the demand for promising application research was far greater than pure science.
A highly important market was the British demand for Best Practices in the crafts.
When work is imperfectly aligned with rewards,science remains the activity of those with an outside income.
Inventors initially forgo 1/3 of their income making it a somewhat irrational occupation.
A new enthusiasm for creating knowledge led to the public sharing of experimental methods and results,demand for those results led to new communication channels amongst theoretical scientists.This spread also to real world application training in coffee houses and inns which artisans could buy.
The Newcomen Steam Engine used coal so inefficiently that it could only be used next to coal mines to pump out water.
The Scot's relative poverty and opportunity in British possessions lead to the Scottish enthusiasm for education.
Gin was made from fermenting grain so bad it couldn't be used for beer.
The ancient Guild economy had a belief that knowledge was a zero sum game.(that knowledge lost value once shared). The industrial revolution required more knowledge sharing which benefited more people.
Production of 10,000 tons of iron demanded 100,000 acres of forest. A single 17th century iron works could denude 4000 acres each year. Coal was used because Iron burned wood faster than it could be grown.
Entrepreneurs had to depend on constantly improving inventions. Watts was successful because he made a steam engine cheap as well as good.
Shipping large amounts of freight by barge is always cheaper than by land although slow. 4mph.
For every 30 degrees of heat to the water doubles the power. Doubling the heat of the water equals 100X the energy. Power rises geometrically while fuel is used arithmetically. Thus new high pressure steam design economically allowed for train travel.
An important incremental improvement in the steam engine was the fusible plug. When water level in tank became dangerously low the plug (which needs to be covered by water) would melt thus letting steam out the hole and avoiding explosions.
So much of Manchester's cotton shipped out of Liverpool, that Liverpool shipped 1/3 of the worlds trade in 1800.
Today's Steam Turbines turn 80% of heat energy into work as opposed to 30% in a Cornish Engine.
From 1700-2000
Population increased 12 x
Production increased 100X
The LA Times review is found below:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/...
The British Industrial Revolution in Global PerspectiveThe British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon... *
Reviewers Note: rereading/listening to this for the 3-4th time and taking more notes.
Like Malcolm Gladwell, Jared Diamond and James Burke, William Rosen asks an interesting question about success and society. The question is : Why did the Industrial Revolution occur in the British Isles instead of India, China, Eastern Europe, South America? I'm found this topic interesting as I think about the need for innovation regarding today's energy needs.
This book offers his theories and provides the history of this invention revolution. As a historical view, it lacks detailed engineering information and illustrations. This can be found on the web or other books.
Since I would like to refer back to his explanation and supporting facts, I'm writing some here.
His premise of why the Industrial Revolution occurred in Britian
"The best explanation for the preeminence of English speakers in lifting humanity out of it's 10,000 year long Malthusian trap is the Anglophone world democratized the nature of invention."
Factoids:
World population grew 100 fold between 500 BCE and 1600ce from 5 to 500 million. Everyone ate the same amount of food, lived the same number of years and buried the same amounts of children. The worldwide GDP (in 1990 $) in 800 GCE was the same for 1600 England about $ 583.
On average, a baby born in France in 1800 lived 25 fewer years than a baby born in the Republic of Congo in 2000.
The Crofton Pump station uses an original Watts engine and is the oldest steam engine used for it's original purpose. https://goo.gl/1peh6g
Abbott Payson Usher- described the four steps of inventing.
4th Century laborer - works 3 hours for a pound of bread
1800 laborer - 2hours
1900 - 20 minutes
Today- 5 minutes
There are by popular consensus over 200 explanations for the cause of the Industrial Revolution .ie;ranging from Max Weber theory on Protestantism more congenial to innovation, China's lack of raw material esp. coal, England absence of internal tariffs & landowning peasant shortage made it a short leap to IR, GB people ate more beef than the French, population shortage from plague made labor expensive. Additional theories found here: https://goo.gl/CkUyiw
The industries of Coal, Iron, Steam Engines, Cotton and Railroads were connected and created an infinite loop of innovation. The Steam Engine was needed to pump water out of coal mines, coal was used to make iron that was used to make steam engines, improvements in the steam engines were required to cost effectively replace water wheels in textile factories, trains moved the cotton. This connected economy brought about big and incremental improvements in small and large machinery,manufacturing techniques, design,information sharing and scientific understanding,
Thousands of innovations were necessary for steam power to work and thousand on innovations were created due to it's invention.
Because Europe had more Artisans than Scientists, the demand for promising application research was far greater than pure science.
A highly important market was the British demand for Best Practices in the crafts.
When work is imperfectly aligned with rewards,science remains the activity of those with an outside income.
Inventors initially forgo 1/3 of their income making it a somewhat irrational occupation.
A new enthusiasm for creating knowledge led to the public sharing of experimental methods and results,demand for those results led to new communication channels amongst theoretical scientists.This spread also to real world application training in coffee houses and inns which artisans could buy.
The Newcomen Steam Engine used coal so inefficiently that it could only be used next to coal mines to pump out water.
The Scot's relative poverty and opportunity in British possessions lead to the Scottish enthusiasm for education.
Gin was made from fermenting grain so bad it couldn't be used for beer.
The ancient Guild economy had a belief that knowledge was a zero sum game.(that knowledge lost value once shared). The industrial revolution required more knowledge sharing which benefited more people.
Production of 10,000 tons of iron demanded 100,000 acres of forest. A single 17th century iron works could denude 4000 acres each year. Coal was used because Iron burned wood faster than it could be grown.
Entrepreneurs had to depend on constantly improving inventions. Watts was successful because he made a steam engine cheap as well as good.
Shipping large amounts of freight by barge is always cheaper than by land although slow. 4mph.
For every 30 degrees of heat to the water doubles the power. Doubling the heat of the water equals 100X the energy. Power rises geometrically while fuel is used arithmetically. Thus new high pressure steam design economically allowed for train travel.
An important incremental improvement in the steam engine was the fusible plug. When water level in tank became dangerously low the plug (which needs to be covered by water) would melt thus letting steam out the hole and avoiding explosions.
So much of Manchester's cotton shipped out of Liverpool, that Liverpool shipped 1/3 of the worlds trade in 1800.
Today's Steam Turbines turn 80% of heat energy into work as opposed to 30% in a Cornish Engine.
From 1700-2000
Population increased 12 x
Production increased 100X
The LA Times review is found below:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/...
The British Industrial Revolution in Global PerspectiveThe British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
October 16, 2016
This may be the single greatest socio-political-economic history ever written. The only comparable book is "A Splendid Exchange," which has a far broader scope yet, as my review indicates, is marred by an annoying trope of academia. A history of the Industrial Revolution, this book explains why the changes took place when and where they did, and the (forgive me) locomotive force that drove exponential growth rates, ending Malthusian nightmares. "The miracle of sustainable invention [is] the most powerful idea in the world."
At bottom, William Rosen's answer is that the revolution was not Industrial, but Inventiveness. Or, as Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "the most important invention of the Industrial Revolution was invention itself." At the end of the book, the author even provides the Price Law formula: the number of individuals responsible for half of all inventions is equal to the square root of the number of total contributors. Thus, it takes a village to make a baker, and a town to make a flower mill, a point Adam Smith states less poetically in his 1776 "Wealth of Nations."
More controversially, the book takes a swipe at explaining why "invention" (still) is dominated overwhelmingly by the Anglosphere. The author is neither a Whig (great man theory) nor a Marxist (scientific determinism) historian. Instead, he's a small "d" democrat, convinced that the ability to invent is latent in everyone, but it took the Anglophone Rule of Law to democratize the nature of invention. And that change was simple: 17th Century Britain's insistence that ideas were a kind of property, i.e., patents.
Much of the book is a satisfying refresher of the great names: Newcomen, Watt, Smeaton, Arkwright and Stephenson--the Industrial Revolution runs essentially contemporaneous with the reign of George III. But the theoretical underpinnings are even more interesting. The United Provinces of the Netherlands was richer than England before 1700, but one reason for its fade in the global league tables was that patent laws protect ideas only within a country's own borders. Inventors in smaller nations "would have been silly" to patent any easily reverse-engineered product (such as steam engines); the lack of legal protection tended to shift investment into industries like dyes and chemicals, where trade secrets (properly managed) might work. But that allowed Britain literally to race ahead of Holland (the Third Anglo-Dutch War helped).
China, by contrast, resembled Tudor England in granting legal monopolies ("letters patent") to court favorites, for a share of the booty. But to preserve the secrecy of specialized knowledge funding the country, the Qing Dynasty destroyed nearly every copy of China's relatively Westernized encyclopedia. France had neither disadvantage--but the Revolution, then Napoleon, set its inventors a generation behind Britain's. (Jacobins, remember, guillotined the chemist Antoine Lavoisier.) Compare all this with the trade-off inherent in an Anglosphere patent: in return for a limited-time monopoly, the inventor has to publicize fully his work, available to all--and for anyone to try inventing an improvement.
A few other points struck me. Because Britain's ill-conceived Mercantile system lasted until the Corn Laws were repealed, colonies were NOT a source of raw materials for the mother-ship; instead, they were a stash of captive consumers. And there's a splendid chapter on those who historian E.J. Hobsbawm described as "engaging in collective bargaining by riot":
"Luddites were on one side of a newly violent debate about…labor and property. Opposing them was the newfangled notion that IDEAS were property; the Luddites argued (with crowbars and torches) that their SKILLS were property.…[Their] thesis, which might be abbreviated as 'property equals labor plus skill' was less attractive than the idea that 'property equals labor plus ideas.' The victory of the latter was decided not by argument, but by economics: it produced more wealth, not just for individuals, but for an entire nation.…One lesson of the Luddite rebellion specifically, and the Industrial Revolution generally, is that maintaining the prosperity of those closed communities--their pride in workmanship as well as their economic well-being--can only be paid for by those outside the communities: by society at large."
Great stuff!
At bottom, William Rosen's answer is that the revolution was not Industrial, but Inventiveness. Or, as Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "the most important invention of the Industrial Revolution was invention itself." At the end of the book, the author even provides the Price Law formula: the number of individuals responsible for half of all inventions is equal to the square root of the number of total contributors. Thus, it takes a village to make a baker, and a town to make a flower mill, a point Adam Smith states less poetically in his 1776 "Wealth of Nations."
More controversially, the book takes a swipe at explaining why "invention" (still) is dominated overwhelmingly by the Anglosphere. The author is neither a Whig (great man theory) nor a Marxist (scientific determinism) historian. Instead, he's a small "d" democrat, convinced that the ability to invent is latent in everyone, but it took the Anglophone Rule of Law to democratize the nature of invention. And that change was simple: 17th Century Britain's insistence that ideas were a kind of property, i.e., patents.
Much of the book is a satisfying refresher of the great names: Newcomen, Watt, Smeaton, Arkwright and Stephenson--the Industrial Revolution runs essentially contemporaneous with the reign of George III. But the theoretical underpinnings are even more interesting. The United Provinces of the Netherlands was richer than England before 1700, but one reason for its fade in the global league tables was that patent laws protect ideas only within a country's own borders. Inventors in smaller nations "would have been silly" to patent any easily reverse-engineered product (such as steam engines); the lack of legal protection tended to shift investment into industries like dyes and chemicals, where trade secrets (properly managed) might work. But that allowed Britain literally to race ahead of Holland (the Third Anglo-Dutch War helped).
China, by contrast, resembled Tudor England in granting legal monopolies ("letters patent") to court favorites, for a share of the booty. But to preserve the secrecy of specialized knowledge funding the country, the Qing Dynasty destroyed nearly every copy of China's relatively Westernized encyclopedia. France had neither disadvantage--but the Revolution, then Napoleon, set its inventors a generation behind Britain's. (Jacobins, remember, guillotined the chemist Antoine Lavoisier.) Compare all this with the trade-off inherent in an Anglosphere patent: in return for a limited-time monopoly, the inventor has to publicize fully his work, available to all--and for anyone to try inventing an improvement.
A few other points struck me. Because Britain's ill-conceived Mercantile system lasted until the Corn Laws were repealed, colonies were NOT a source of raw materials for the mother-ship; instead, they were a stash of captive consumers. And there's a splendid chapter on those who historian E.J. Hobsbawm described as "engaging in collective bargaining by riot":
"Luddites were on one side of a newly violent debate about…labor and property. Opposing them was the newfangled notion that IDEAS were property; the Luddites argued (with crowbars and torches) that their SKILLS were property.…[Their] thesis, which might be abbreviated as 'property equals labor plus skill' was less attractive than the idea that 'property equals labor plus ideas.' The victory of the latter was decided not by argument, but by economics: it produced more wealth, not just for individuals, but for an entire nation.…One lesson of the Luddite rebellion specifically, and the Industrial Revolution generally, is that maintaining the prosperity of those closed communities--their pride in workmanship as well as their economic well-being--can only be paid for by those outside the communities: by society at large."
Great stuff!
December 16, 2016
On the ground floor of the Science Museum in London’s South Kensington neighborhood, on a low platform in the center of the gallery called “Making of the Modern World,” is the most famous locomotive ever built. It's the Rocket, a locomotive that marks the inaugoration of something pretty significant - two centuries of mass transportation.
But how and why did the technology that was used to create this first locomotive, begin?
Why, for a long time in history, human development stood still? Or, in the words of the author:
Why a skilled laborer—a weaver, perhaps, or a blacksmith—in seventeenth-century England, France, or China spent roughly the same number of hours a week at his trade, producing about the same number of bolts of cloth, or nails, as his ten-times great-grandfather did during the time of Augustus?
Human development was locked in the 'Malthusian Trap': every discovery or improvement in technology, was quickly consumed by an increase in population. And then, suddenly, it all changed:
A skilled fourth-century weaver in the city of Constantinople might earn enough by working three hours to purchase a pound of bread; by 1800, it would cost a weaver working in Nottingham at least two. But by 1900,6 it took less than fifteen minutes to earn enough to buy the loaf; and by 2000, five minutes.
The reason? You might have guessed it already, is the Industrial Revolution.
In his book the author tries to find the root cause and effect of the Industrial Revolution. The author defines two basic questions:
1. What were the causes of the Industrial Revolution?
2. Why did the Industrial Revolution start in England?
This is the central theme of the book.
The cause of the Industrial Revolution must be, in the authors words, found in the fact that the Industrial Revolution was a revolution in invention rather than technology. It is the perpetual technological innovation, nowadays much taken for granted, that is the defining factor of the era since the Industrial Revolution. Another important fact that this book tries to answer, is why the Industrial Revolution took place in England. The answer?
The best explanation for the preminence of English speakers in lifting the humanity out of its ten-thousand-year-long Malthusian trap is that the Anglophone world democratized the nature of invention.
The author then takes us on a journey, starting in Alexandria, where Heron of Alexandria inventes the first apparatus usin the concept of a vacuum, the aeolipile. From Egypt, we then travel to Renaissance Italy where Toricelli, in 1664 Florence, demonstrates the existence of a vacuum. From Florence to Magdeburg, where Otto von Gericke developes the vacuum pump. Then on to England, where Robert Boyle creates the machine Boyleana, capable of not only demonstrating the existence of a vacuum, but also allows for researching its characteristics. From Boyle on to Thomas Savery, who in 1699 built the first steam engine. Although not yet perfect, it was a revelation. But more importantly, it inspired Thomas Newcomen into building the first engine that combined the concept of the vacuum with an functional piston that could be driven by atmospheric pressure and adding one critical element: the beam. This allowed Thomas to built the first working engine that was capable of pumping water out of the many coal mines in England.
The author then goes on explaining how the scientific revolution started off in England. He starts off with Edward Coke's statute of monopolies, which allowed inventors to own their ideas and inventions, for a fixed period of time, and therefore provided an initiative to invest time and labor into their inventions, thus greatly increasing the amount of patents in England.
With this all we come into the famous James Watt, who not only improved the original Thomas Newcomen engine, but also was responsible for moving the steam engine (untill then used to drain the coal mines) into the fields of the cotton weaving. Or in the words of the author:
The true industrialization of Britain, and subsequently, the world, depended on a commodity that could attract consumers not by the thousands but by the millions. Something that could be produced in such quantity that hundreds of factories would need steam power.
And this is were it all took off. In comes Richard Arkwright, who built the Shudehill mill in Manchester, all running on steam power and soon employing 5000 people. Arkwright died a wealthy man in 1792.
Arkwright did play a large role in the birth of the cotton mills, but more important was the fact that he also created a self-sustaining industrialization. The cloth produced in Arkwright's mills was not intended for manufacturers and traders (in modern words, business-to-business) but for the growing home market, the eighteenth century households.
But why did the Industrial Revolution start in England, and not for example China, the Netherlands or France? The author explains:
1) China: basically, China was too big (in terms of demographics). The population's need for food caused the fact that all technological innovation was focussed on agriculture, and the absence of political innovation meant that there was no individual incentive to innovate.
2) Netherlands: the Netherlands had a large and powerfull merchant class, access to millions of customers through its large colonial empire and deep respect for inventions and inventors. But the Netherlands was too small, granting patents would stop at its national border and therefore have a too small market base to blossom.
3) France: France seemes even to have a largere advantage than Great Brittain, but the French Revolution proved hostile to invention or inventors. Also, the perception of Rousseau towards innovation didn't help also.
So why England? In England, the availability of capital combined with it great attitude towards innovation meant that it could do business. Until now, the first stage of the Industrial Revolution was set by the use of condensed steam to convert atmospheric pressure into motion by the Newcomen's pumps. The second stage was set by converting the expansive power of steam into rotary motion in England's cotton mills. The third stage was converting steam power into motion. Or in the words of the author:
Steam power not only intended for manufacturing goods, but also to transport it.
However, locomotive engines needed to put more power with less weight, in other words, they needed to be more efficient. Oliver Evans (an American born in 1755 in the colony of Delaware) had the answer: if one could dramatically increase the temperature of the steam and therefore its pressure, the separate condenser (added by James Watt) could be disposed of. Evans solved this issue by placing his furnace inside a water filled chamber. Evans had not only made the James Watt solution more powerfull, but also save on fuel.
However, the United States was still a decade away from railroad building, and the greatest contribution to the history of steam locomotion was his decision to share the design of his boiler and high-pressure steam engine with his compatriots in Britain. There it was picked up by Richard Trevithick, which in 1808 demonstrated the Penydarren engine. Trevithick's engine, the first driven by high-pressure steam, earned him a considerable claim on the title "Fatner of railways", but the birth was still a decade or so in the future. The problem was not with the engine, but with the rails, which cracked like twigs.
And this problem was solved by Robert Stephenson who, along with his father, George, is Trevithick’s only serious competitor for the title of “father of railways.” Stephenson, in collaboration with the ironmonger William Losh of Newcastle, produced, and in September 1816 jointly patented, a series of improvements in wheels, suspension, and—most important—the method by which the rails and “chairs” connected one piece of track to another. Stephenson’s rails seem mundane next to better-known “eureka” moments, but as much as any other innovation of the day they underline the importance of such micro-inventions in the making of a revolution.
So here we are: on May 1, 1829, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway ran an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury inviting "engineers and iron founders" to submit plans for locomotives to deliver loads between Liverpool and Manchester. Known as the Rainhill Trials, there were three final contestors: the Sans Pareil, built by Timothy Hackworth and the Novelty, the creation of John Ericsson, a former Swedish army officer living in London. But the victor, by acclamation, was the Stephenson's Rocket.
And this is where the book ends. The Rainhill Trials mark the moment in history where the steam revolution became finally and inevitable. On year leater, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened for business. Rainhill was a victory not only for Stephenson, but also for Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, Oliver Evans and Richard Trevithick.
But how and why did the technology that was used to create this first locomotive, begin?
Why, for a long time in history, human development stood still? Or, in the words of the author:
Why a skilled laborer—a weaver, perhaps, or a blacksmith—in seventeenth-century England, France, or China spent roughly the same number of hours a week at his trade, producing about the same number of bolts of cloth, or nails, as his ten-times great-grandfather did during the time of Augustus?
Human development was locked in the 'Malthusian Trap': every discovery or improvement in technology, was quickly consumed by an increase in population. And then, suddenly, it all changed:
A skilled fourth-century weaver in the city of Constantinople might earn enough by working three hours to purchase a pound of bread; by 1800, it would cost a weaver working in Nottingham at least two. But by 1900,6 it took less than fifteen minutes to earn enough to buy the loaf; and by 2000, five minutes.
The reason? You might have guessed it already, is the Industrial Revolution.
In his book the author tries to find the root cause and effect of the Industrial Revolution. The author defines two basic questions:
1. What were the causes of the Industrial Revolution?
2. Why did the Industrial Revolution start in England?
This is the central theme of the book.
The cause of the Industrial Revolution must be, in the authors words, found in the fact that the Industrial Revolution was a revolution in invention rather than technology. It is the perpetual technological innovation, nowadays much taken for granted, that is the defining factor of the era since the Industrial Revolution. Another important fact that this book tries to answer, is why the Industrial Revolution took place in England. The answer?
The best explanation for the preminence of English speakers in lifting the humanity out of its ten-thousand-year-long Malthusian trap is that the Anglophone world democratized the nature of invention.
The author then takes us on a journey, starting in Alexandria, where Heron of Alexandria inventes the first apparatus usin the concept of a vacuum, the aeolipile. From Egypt, we then travel to Renaissance Italy where Toricelli, in 1664 Florence, demonstrates the existence of a vacuum. From Florence to Magdeburg, where Otto von Gericke developes the vacuum pump. Then on to England, where Robert Boyle creates the machine Boyleana, capable of not only demonstrating the existence of a vacuum, but also allows for researching its characteristics. From Boyle on to Thomas Savery, who in 1699 built the first steam engine. Although not yet perfect, it was a revelation. But more importantly, it inspired Thomas Newcomen into building the first engine that combined the concept of the vacuum with an functional piston that could be driven by atmospheric pressure and adding one critical element: the beam. This allowed Thomas to built the first working engine that was capable of pumping water out of the many coal mines in England.
The author then goes on explaining how the scientific revolution started off in England. He starts off with Edward Coke's statute of monopolies, which allowed inventors to own their ideas and inventions, for a fixed period of time, and therefore provided an initiative to invest time and labor into their inventions, thus greatly increasing the amount of patents in England.
With this all we come into the famous James Watt, who not only improved the original Thomas Newcomen engine, but also was responsible for moving the steam engine (untill then used to drain the coal mines) into the fields of the cotton weaving. Or in the words of the author:
The true industrialization of Britain, and subsequently, the world, depended on a commodity that could attract consumers not by the thousands but by the millions. Something that could be produced in such quantity that hundreds of factories would need steam power.
And this is were it all took off. In comes Richard Arkwright, who built the Shudehill mill in Manchester, all running on steam power and soon employing 5000 people. Arkwright died a wealthy man in 1792.
Arkwright did play a large role in the birth of the cotton mills, but more important was the fact that he also created a self-sustaining industrialization. The cloth produced in Arkwright's mills was not intended for manufacturers and traders (in modern words, business-to-business) but for the growing home market, the eighteenth century households.
But why did the Industrial Revolution start in England, and not for example China, the Netherlands or France? The author explains:
1) China: basically, China was too big (in terms of demographics). The population's need for food caused the fact that all technological innovation was focussed on agriculture, and the absence of political innovation meant that there was no individual incentive to innovate.
2) Netherlands: the Netherlands had a large and powerfull merchant class, access to millions of customers through its large colonial empire and deep respect for inventions and inventors. But the Netherlands was too small, granting patents would stop at its national border and therefore have a too small market base to blossom.
3) France: France seemes even to have a largere advantage than Great Brittain, but the French Revolution proved hostile to invention or inventors. Also, the perception of Rousseau towards innovation didn't help also.
So why England? In England, the availability of capital combined with it great attitude towards innovation meant that it could do business. Until now, the first stage of the Industrial Revolution was set by the use of condensed steam to convert atmospheric pressure into motion by the Newcomen's pumps. The second stage was set by converting the expansive power of steam into rotary motion in England's cotton mills. The third stage was converting steam power into motion. Or in the words of the author:
Steam power not only intended for manufacturing goods, but also to transport it.
However, locomotive engines needed to put more power with less weight, in other words, they needed to be more efficient. Oliver Evans (an American born in 1755 in the colony of Delaware) had the answer: if one could dramatically increase the temperature of the steam and therefore its pressure, the separate condenser (added by James Watt) could be disposed of. Evans solved this issue by placing his furnace inside a water filled chamber. Evans had not only made the James Watt solution more powerfull, but also save on fuel.
However, the United States was still a decade away from railroad building, and the greatest contribution to the history of steam locomotion was his decision to share the design of his boiler and high-pressure steam engine with his compatriots in Britain. There it was picked up by Richard Trevithick, which in 1808 demonstrated the Penydarren engine. Trevithick's engine, the first driven by high-pressure steam, earned him a considerable claim on the title "Fatner of railways", but the birth was still a decade or so in the future. The problem was not with the engine, but with the rails, which cracked like twigs.
And this problem was solved by Robert Stephenson who, along with his father, George, is Trevithick’s only serious competitor for the title of “father of railways.” Stephenson, in collaboration with the ironmonger William Losh of Newcastle, produced, and in September 1816 jointly patented, a series of improvements in wheels, suspension, and—most important—the method by which the rails and “chairs” connected one piece of track to another. Stephenson’s rails seem mundane next to better-known “eureka” moments, but as much as any other innovation of the day they underline the importance of such micro-inventions in the making of a revolution.
So here we are: on May 1, 1829, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway ran an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury inviting "engineers and iron founders" to submit plans for locomotives to deliver loads between Liverpool and Manchester. Known as the Rainhill Trials, there were three final contestors: the Sans Pareil, built by Timothy Hackworth and the Novelty, the creation of John Ericsson, a former Swedish army officer living in London. But the victor, by acclamation, was the Stephenson's Rocket.
And this is where the book ends. The Rainhill Trials mark the moment in history where the steam revolution became finally and inevitable. On year leater, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened for business. Rainhill was a victory not only for Stephenson, but also for Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, Oliver Evans and Richard Trevithick.
March 31, 2011
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I'm not sure I can really recommend it whole-heartedly. It was interesting to learn about an area of history I wasn't too acquainted with (the 18th century in terms of technological development), and the narrative is generally quite captivating.
A major weakness is that a lot of time and space is spent describing the workings of various different types of steam engines and precisely what the advantages were of a host of different innovations pioneered by various people. These are fairly well written, but this is an instance where a diagram really would be worth several thousand words. I found myself having trouble visualizing the various different designs in anything other than the grossest terms based on the descriptions in the text. One could argue that the author is more concerned with the people involved than the specifics of their improvements and innovations, but if that were the case then surely he might have made the book a great deal shorter by simply saying "and then Watt came up with another improvement", so to speak. The only diagrams in the book are contemporary images of various engines, and these are not really very informative. I feel that I might well end up with a better understanding of the relative merits of the various developments of Watt et al by spending twenty minutes on wikipedia looking at some actual diagrams.
My other chief complaint is the chapter spent describing the nature of invention and inventive genius. This seems to draw heavily on theories of 'expertise' and the like which are very popular with people like Malcolm Gladwell. He combines this with a number of statements about differences between 'inventors' and 'non-inventors' and ends up invoking that delightfully imprecise tool of 'fMRI studies showing increased activation in certain areas of the brain bla bla bla". This chapter was almost enough to make me stop reading the book, to be honest. If the central thesis of the book is that the most powerful idea in the world is actually forming a legal basis for intellectual property, why spend so much time pondering the nature of genius in ways which are certain to be unfulfilling to everyone.
It is also unfortunate that the author starts off by weakening his credibility with the rather dubious claim that Robert Hooke was "probably England's most gifted mathematician" (attributing this to a book about Hooke). The man certainly had many great discoveries to his name, but he certainly cannot be considered in the same class of mathematician as Newton (or Dirac, for that matter).
Generally, the book is interesting and engaging, but it could certainly have been a great deal better, which is perhaps what I find most frustrating about it.
A major weakness is that a lot of time and space is spent describing the workings of various different types of steam engines and precisely what the advantages were of a host of different innovations pioneered by various people. These are fairly well written, but this is an instance where a diagram really would be worth several thousand words. I found myself having trouble visualizing the various different designs in anything other than the grossest terms based on the descriptions in the text. One could argue that the author is more concerned with the people involved than the specifics of their improvements and innovations, but if that were the case then surely he might have made the book a great deal shorter by simply saying "and then Watt came up with another improvement", so to speak. The only diagrams in the book are contemporary images of various engines, and these are not really very informative. I feel that I might well end up with a better understanding of the relative merits of the various developments of Watt et al by spending twenty minutes on wikipedia looking at some actual diagrams.
My other chief complaint is the chapter spent describing the nature of invention and inventive genius. This seems to draw heavily on theories of 'expertise' and the like which are very popular with people like Malcolm Gladwell. He combines this with a number of statements about differences between 'inventors' and 'non-inventors' and ends up invoking that delightfully imprecise tool of 'fMRI studies showing increased activation in certain areas of the brain bla bla bla". This chapter was almost enough to make me stop reading the book, to be honest. If the central thesis of the book is that the most powerful idea in the world is actually forming a legal basis for intellectual property, why spend so much time pondering the nature of genius in ways which are certain to be unfulfilling to everyone.
It is also unfortunate that the author starts off by weakening his credibility with the rather dubious claim that Robert Hooke was "probably England's most gifted mathematician" (attributing this to a book about Hooke). The man certainly had many great discoveries to his name, but he certainly cannot be considered in the same class of mathematician as Newton (or Dirac, for that matter).
Generally, the book is interesting and engaging, but it could certainly have been a great deal better, which is perhaps what I find most frustrating about it.
March 12, 2011
This book is an interesting history of an innovation - the working steam engine. It focuses not on any one version of the engine, but on all the innovations and innovators necessary to make steam technology a commercial success. So it doesn't just focus on Watt and Boulton but on the entire English system of innovating and patenting. This is why the book leads up to the test of the Rocket locomotive, since that contest provide a useful focal point. It was a very informative book and was especially good at discussing the interaction of establishment science, such as with the nascent Royal Society, and the raft of craftsmen and tinkers whose work was also crucial. The book does not break new ground to people who follow the history of innovation, but it puts its materials together well and is a relatively easy read. My only criticism is that perhaps the book tries to do too much. For example, the central point of the book (and the title) is that a system of innovating is itself a powerful innovation. That does not get communicated as clearly as it could during the book and the reader is left sort out trees and forests.
January 25, 2023
لم استطع اكمال الكتاب
مشكلة عندما يكون موضوع الكتاب بسيط ولكن المؤلف يحاول وضعه بمؤلف كبير. قصة المحرك البخاري مشوقه لكن المؤلف لسبب ماء أزعجني بكثرة الاستطرادات غير ذات المعنى.
مشكلة عندما يكون موضوع الكتاب بسيط ولكن المؤلف يحاول وضعه بمؤلف كبير. قصة المحرك البخاري مشوقه لكن المؤلف لسبب ماء أزعجني بكثرة الاستطرادات غير ذات المعنى.
May 1, 2014
I was a little bit surprised by what the author chose as the most powerful idea in the world. The book is a fascinating recounting of the forces and inventions that were the Industrial Revolution. I had never realized how central the steam engine was to all that, but it was interesting how the interplay between steam power, coal mining, textile production, transportation and others led to the growth. It was intriguing to read about how the myriad small inventions in different areas all built on each other to lead to explosive growth.
Before this, according to the book, for thousands of years people's incomes were stagnant and then the Industrial Revolution which was primarily focused in England and later the US dramatically increased incomes/wealth. The book postulates as to the reasons why and where this happened. The most powerful idea is the patent system, being able to profit off ideas and not just from producing something. Before information was closely guarded and considered a zero sum game. For this to work effectively, you needed a large enough population which is why places like the Netherlands weren't at the forefront. Another book, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, which is fascinating also talks about the reasons for innovation differences in different civilizations around the globe and has interesting insights.
I listened to this on CD and the descriptions of the inventions were sometimes hard to follow and I wished I had the book to see some illustrations. From reading another review, I gather there weren't adequate illustrations.
Before this, according to the book, for thousands of years people's incomes were stagnant and then the Industrial Revolution which was primarily focused in England and later the US dramatically increased incomes/wealth. The book postulates as to the reasons why and where this happened. The most powerful idea is the patent system, being able to profit off ideas and not just from producing something. Before information was closely guarded and considered a zero sum game. For this to work effectively, you needed a large enough population which is why places like the Netherlands weren't at the forefront. Another book, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, which is fascinating also talks about the reasons for innovation differences in different civilizations around the globe and has interesting insights.
I listened to this on CD and the descriptions of the inventions were sometimes hard to follow and I wished I had the book to see some illustrations. From reading another review, I gather there weren't adequate illustrations.
July 29, 2019
A very entertaining and deeply informative romp through the rise of steam power.
Rosen dives into different aspects of how steam became invention in the 18th century: the Royal Society, intellectual property, painstaking R&D, multiple businessmen scheming, scientific progress. If that sounds daunting, it usually isn't, because Most Powerful Idea has a fine sense of humor and races along with manic energy.
A key point: steam wasn't so much the thing as the idea of invention. Allied to this: Britain took the lead in industry because it democratized innovation better than any other nation.
Recommended.
Rosen dives into different aspects of how steam became invention in the 18th century: the Royal Society, intellectual property, painstaking R&D, multiple businessmen scheming, scientific progress. If that sounds daunting, it usually isn't, because Most Powerful Idea has a fine sense of humor and races along with manic energy.
A key point: steam wasn't so much the thing as the idea of invention. Allied to this: Britain took the lead in industry because it democratized innovation better than any other nation.
Recommended.
July 9, 2018
I've re-read this book several times. It is a marvelous journey through the start of the Industrial Revolution and "the most powerful idea in the world." If you're into science or technology, this is a great read.
September 10, 2021
DNF halfway there,
I'm genuinely going to gag if I read another old Englishman glorifying the days of the Raj and perpetuating English exceptionalism in the guise of 'microhistory' - all while completely ignoring colonialism. I suppose if a kid read this they wouldn't even realize that colonialism was a thing. They'd come out thinking the English were a heroic nation that built everything and saved everyone from the Nazis. No wonder I keep hearing old English people constantly bringing up 'bUt ThE rAiLwAyS' anytime the question of the subcontinental colonization comes up. The British actively try to erase anything negative they did from their textbooks.
I'm genuinely going to gag if I read another old Englishman glorifying the days of the Raj and perpetuating English exceptionalism in the guise of 'microhistory' - all while completely ignoring colonialism. I suppose if a kid read this they wouldn't even realize that colonialism was a thing. They'd come out thinking the English were a heroic nation that built everything and saved everyone from the Nazis. No wonder I keep hearing old English people constantly bringing up 'bUt ThE rAiLwAyS' anytime the question of the subcontinental colonization comes up. The British actively try to erase anything negative they did from their textbooks.
January 26, 2021
The industrial revolution wasn't just the product of a couple of good ideas. Or 1-2 famous inventors like Watt.
It was (according to the author) the patent system which allowed inventors to be able to create while "business people" invested in their ideas. The Steam Engine wasn't just Watt's idea, it was born of thousands of little innovations and needs.
The book is amazing, and I can't really tell all the things I liked about it. One of the most impressive things though, is how, innovation didn't required that much of a scientific understanding of the processes involved. Super interesting how a lot of the steam engines didn't even understand thermodynamics or even the nature of heat.
Well written, entertaining, and full of challenging ideas.
It was (according to the author) the patent system which allowed inventors to be able to create while "business people" invested in their ideas. The Steam Engine wasn't just Watt's idea, it was born of thousands of little innovations and needs.
The book is amazing, and I can't really tell all the things I liked about it. One of the most impressive things though, is how, innovation didn't required that much of a scientific understanding of the processes involved. Super interesting how a lot of the steam engines didn't even understand thermodynamics or even the nature of heat.
Well written, entertaining, and full of challenging ideas.
September 10, 2017
If you want the best book about the Scientific Revolution then read The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. If you want the best book about the Industrial Revolution then read The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention.
Read
September 14, 2020The greatest idea was that ideas were property and had value. As soon as the patent system was created so began the industrial revolution. Incentive goes a long way as this read clearly demonstrates.
August 3, 2013
The main thesis of the book is the exploration of the "whys" and "hows" of the Industrial Revolution, and I thought William Rosen tackled it admirably.
Starting in Hero's Alexandria of the 2nd Century CE, to France and the invention of the vacuum driven piston, Rosen spends almost all the remaining time in Britain with Newcomen, Savery and later James Watt who all helped in the invention of the steam engine.
The book doesn't focus on the technology aspect alone but spends a fair amount of time on patent law and monopolies. It is not a strictly chronological narrative and jumps between time zones but sticks to specific aspects of industrialization such as the smelting of iron, and the mechanization of the textile industry. Rosen finishes off with the advent of the railways, and the beginning of the USA as a world power.
I didn't like some of the things however, the major one being Rosen's penchant to ramble on and on about the devices with very few diagrams. I found this dense paragraphs detailing pulleys, crankshafts and flywheels to be impossible to get through, and I'm a mechanical engineer. I think the problem might be that Rosen has bitten off more than he can chew and doesn't understand these mechanisms in any detailed way either but tries to explain it to the reader without trying to scare him/her. An admirable notion but I think Rosen fails in this. The lack of more figures is crippling.
Overall the scope of the book, masterfully intertwining the history of ideas, economics, thermodynamics, law, and combined with an informed, even witty writing hit the sweet spot for me. A must read for anybody vaguely interested in early modern history, or the beginnings of engineering and applied science.
Starting in Hero's Alexandria of the 2nd Century CE, to France and the invention of the vacuum driven piston, Rosen spends almost all the remaining time in Britain with Newcomen, Savery and later James Watt who all helped in the invention of the steam engine.
The book doesn't focus on the technology aspect alone but spends a fair amount of time on patent law and monopolies. It is not a strictly chronological narrative and jumps between time zones but sticks to specific aspects of industrialization such as the smelting of iron, and the mechanization of the textile industry. Rosen finishes off with the advent of the railways, and the beginning of the USA as a world power.
I didn't like some of the things however, the major one being Rosen's penchant to ramble on and on about the devices with very few diagrams. I found this dense paragraphs detailing pulleys, crankshafts and flywheels to be impossible to get through, and I'm a mechanical engineer. I think the problem might be that Rosen has bitten off more than he can chew and doesn't understand these mechanisms in any detailed way either but tries to explain it to the reader without trying to scare him/her. An admirable notion but I think Rosen fails in this. The lack of more figures is crippling.
Overall the scope of the book, masterfully intertwining the history of ideas, economics, thermodynamics, law, and combined with an informed, even witty writing hit the sweet spot for me. A must read for anybody vaguely interested in early modern history, or the beginnings of engineering and applied science.
March 28, 2014
"The Patent System added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius." - Abraham Lincoln
When I picked up this book I wasn't sure - even after reading several reviews - what it was about; a history of invention, a layman's science/engineering text or even a "biography" of the locomotive. Well The Most Powerful Idea in the World is all that and much more - and is a fascinating read.
Using the steam engine Rocket, (built in 1829), as his center-piece, the author takes the reader on an historical journey of innovation and invention, beginning in "ancient times", through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and culminating with the Industrial Revolution. The book is full of anecdotes, biographical sketches, (the reader meets Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Edward Coke, James Watt and a slew of others), psychology and neurobiology, economics and political theory - including the Malthusian Trap - and even the science behind many of the inventions. (To be honest some of the latter eluded this reader, but this "challenge" didn't take away from my fascination with this book.)
The author also generously sprinkles his sardonic humor/wit throughout - which although may not elicit guffaws, will definitely have you chuckling at times. There is also an interesting premise, which Rosen does a very good job of explaining, as to why the English-speaking world was at the forefront of this phenomenon of "invention" and more importantly, its real-world "application". (Lincoln's quote above, a hint as to why this was/is - "Honest Abe" once again capturing a chapter in human endeavor both succinctly and poetically.) This is a great book and I have no doubt I will be re-reading it again - possibly several times.
When I picked up this book I wasn't sure - even after reading several reviews - what it was about; a history of invention, a layman's science/engineering text or even a "biography" of the locomotive. Well The Most Powerful Idea in the World is all that and much more - and is a fascinating read.
Using the steam engine Rocket, (built in 1829), as his center-piece, the author takes the reader on an historical journey of innovation and invention, beginning in "ancient times", through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and culminating with the Industrial Revolution. The book is full of anecdotes, biographical sketches, (the reader meets Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Edward Coke, James Watt and a slew of others), psychology and neurobiology, economics and political theory - including the Malthusian Trap - and even the science behind many of the inventions. (To be honest some of the latter eluded this reader, but this "challenge" didn't take away from my fascination with this book.)
The author also generously sprinkles his sardonic humor/wit throughout - which although may not elicit guffaws, will definitely have you chuckling at times. There is also an interesting premise, which Rosen does a very good job of explaining, as to why the English-speaking world was at the forefront of this phenomenon of "invention" and more importantly, its real-world "application". (Lincoln's quote above, a hint as to why this was/is - "Honest Abe" once again capturing a chapter in human endeavor both succinctly and poetically.) This is a great book and I have no doubt I will be re-reading it again - possibly several times.
April 1, 2015
"The Most Powerful Idea in the World" is a "Connections"-style book about the developments in technology and ideas that were needed to create an effective steam engine. The author covered the economic, legal, and social issues that came together to foster invention. He also followed various threads of technological developments from ancient times to 1829 that were needed for the creation of steam locomotives. He talked about many inventors and inventions along the way, including developments in iron working, precision measurement, textiles, mining, and science.
If you're looking for a book that clearly explains how each invention worked and includes diagrams, this isn't it. There were only a few diagrams, and the descriptions in the text didn't give enough information for someone not already familiar with the science and engineering behind it. Since the descriptions didn't really enlighten me, they actually went on longer than I needed to understand the overall story of development. A timeline would have been useful, too. The author reset where we were in time with each new topic. Each technology or idea led to the next within each chapter, but I started to lose track of when the events of other chapters happened in relation to the one I was currently reading.
Overall, this is a fairly readable book with a lot of interesting connections about the legal protection and technology needed for the development of the first practical steam locomotive. Just keep in mind that it's a bit technical while still not fully explaining how the various technologies work.
If you're looking for a book that clearly explains how each invention worked and includes diagrams, this isn't it. There were only a few diagrams, and the descriptions in the text didn't give enough information for someone not already familiar with the science and engineering behind it. Since the descriptions didn't really enlighten me, they actually went on longer than I needed to understand the overall story of development. A timeline would have been useful, too. The author reset where we were in time with each new topic. Each technology or idea led to the next within each chapter, but I started to lose track of when the events of other chapters happened in relation to the one I was currently reading.
Overall, this is a fairly readable book with a lot of interesting connections about the legal protection and technology needed for the development of the first practical steam locomotive. Just keep in mind that it's a bit technical while still not fully explaining how the various technologies work.
February 10, 2013
This book looks at how the Industrial Revolution happened and how in a fairly small island off Europe fossil fuels were first harnessed which in turn led to the enormous increase in wealth over the past 200 years.
The book is well written and very much worth reading for people who are interested in the technology and concepts that changed humanity. Rosen asks the question as to why it was in Britain, rather than in China that this happened. Rosen credits the patents system substantially.
The book has more substance than books by Jared Diamond, Alain de Botton or Malcolm Gladwell. It's more like a Simon Winchester book. It isn't extending an idea that could be well expressed in an essay and stretching it into a book. The book covers a lot of historical ground.
The weaknesses of the book are that it jumps around and doesn't have a strong non-fiction narrative the way, say, Michael Lewis books do and that not enough figures and illustrations are used. You can fill in the gaps by looking around the web but it would be good to have it in the book. The book is criticized by some reviewers for not having enough technical detail but it should be clear that this is not purely a technical history of steam engines.
But it's very much worth reading for anyone interested in engineering, business, technology and history.
The book is well written and very much worth reading for people who are interested in the technology and concepts that changed humanity. Rosen asks the question as to why it was in Britain, rather than in China that this happened. Rosen credits the patents system substantially.
The book has more substance than books by Jared Diamond, Alain de Botton or Malcolm Gladwell. It's more like a Simon Winchester book. It isn't extending an idea that could be well expressed in an essay and stretching it into a book. The book covers a lot of historical ground.
The weaknesses of the book are that it jumps around and doesn't have a strong non-fiction narrative the way, say, Michael Lewis books do and that not enough figures and illustrations are used. You can fill in the gaps by looking around the web but it would be good to have it in the book. The book is criticized by some reviewers for not having enough technical detail but it should be clear that this is not purely a technical history of steam engines.
But it's very much worth reading for anyone interested in engineering, business, technology and history.
February 16, 2012
Those who picked up the book looking for a treatise on the evolution of steam engines would do well to look at the subtitle. (i.e. The Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention.)
For while the there is some valuable intormation on early steam engine evolution, primarily the Newcombe and Watt engines in the first couple of chapters and the first practical steam locomotive Rocket in the last, the author casts his net much wider than that. In a style that reminds one somewhat of a James Burke book, the author takes unapologetic sidetrips into British Patent Law, the Calico Acts,the growth of the cotton weaving industry in England due to inovation, the need for deeper coal because of the deforestation of England, the evolution of the science of thermodynamics, the nature of inventors and invention, and "The Great Divergence", all with a wink and a nudge about getting back to steam engines and Rocket.
Along the way one realizes that the book is not really about steam engines at all, but an inquiry into why the first industrial revolution happened in England and not somewhere else.
Still, also in the same way as a James Burke book, the side trips are fascinating ones, even if it wasn't exactly the tour you signed up for.
For while the there is some valuable intormation on early steam engine evolution, primarily the Newcombe and Watt engines in the first couple of chapters and the first practical steam locomotive Rocket in the last, the author casts his net much wider than that. In a style that reminds one somewhat of a James Burke book, the author takes unapologetic sidetrips into British Patent Law, the Calico Acts,the growth of the cotton weaving industry in England due to inovation, the need for deeper coal because of the deforestation of England, the evolution of the science of thermodynamics, the nature of inventors and invention, and "The Great Divergence", all with a wink and a nudge about getting back to steam engines and Rocket.
Along the way one realizes that the book is not really about steam engines at all, but an inquiry into why the first industrial revolution happened in England and not somewhere else.
Still, also in the same way as a James Burke book, the side trips are fascinating ones, even if it wasn't exactly the tour you signed up for.
July 23, 2017
I rarely write reviews, but I had to write one for this book.
I thought I was going to read a book about the steam engine and the industrial revolution.
Instead this is a book of tangents in which the author talks about everything but the steam engine until the final chapter. Sure, all the inventions are part of the steam engine and the steam engine could not exist without them, but the book is not about the steam engine.
The author spends more time talking about property and invention rights than the stream engine and spends several pages talking about the brains chemistry and what happens in the brain when someone has a “Eureka Moment”, all very fascinating if that is what you want to read about, but it’s not steam engines. If you want a book that meanders all over the place then it’s for you, but don’t expect to read about steam engines and their use in the industrial revolution.
I thought I was going to read a book about the steam engine and the industrial revolution.
Instead this is a book of tangents in which the author talks about everything but the steam engine until the final chapter. Sure, all the inventions are part of the steam engine and the steam engine could not exist without them, but the book is not about the steam engine.
The author spends more time talking about property and invention rights than the stream engine and spends several pages talking about the brains chemistry and what happens in the brain when someone has a “Eureka Moment”, all very fascinating if that is what you want to read about, but it’s not steam engines. If you want a book that meanders all over the place then it’s for you, but don’t expect to read about steam engines and their use in the industrial revolution.
January 31, 2016
This is verging on being a must-read book. Author William Rosen uses the development of the steam engine from its earliest days until its successful implementation in "Rocket," the first steam locomotive as a platform to explain patent law, innovation, invention, and all of the other reasons behind the industrial revolution and Britain's ascension to the ranks of the "have nations." Along the way we meet all the important players and hear about many others' theories on national wealth creation. There is huge amount of information presented in a very readable and often humorous way.
January 29, 2018
Not technical enough
I was hoping for a steam/Industrial Revolution equivalent to Rhodes’s The Making of The Atomic Bomb. While there were some technical details and a narrative thread, there were also tangents about the nature of creativity, invention, etc that I didn’t find particularly interesting. Additionally, some of the technical explanations were not very clear, and the accompanying diagrams were from the original patents, and thus not legible or particularly helpful.
I was hoping for a steam/Industrial Revolution equivalent to Rhodes’s The Making of The Atomic Bomb. While there were some technical details and a narrative thread, there were also tangents about the nature of creativity, invention, etc that I didn’t find particularly interesting. Additionally, some of the technical explanations were not very clear, and the accompanying diagrams were from the original patents, and thus not legible or particularly helpful.
October 29, 2014
The main thesis of this bopk is that the industrial revolution was mainly a revolution in innovation which resulted from the establishment of a new understanding of intellectual property in a large enough country.
The book is clear and easy to follow even though it could have benefited from more explanation of the mechanical details of mechanisms for the uninitiated.
The clarity and focus may have caused some oversimplification in some parts.
The book is clear and easy to follow even though it could have benefited from more explanation of the mechanical details of mechanisms for the uninitiated.
The clarity and focus may have caused some oversimplification in some parts.
May 5, 2017
If you like History then this book is a must. So many things changed in so short of a time, the world will never be the same again. it really is a great read for a history buff, not so much if you just want stories.
December 3, 2018
I thought this was a good mix of a big idea "what makes some countries/societies more innovative than others," and the detailed history of the development of steam power form ancient beginnings through the first practical locomotives.
January 24, 2018
A good overview of the role of patents in the Industrial Revolution.
June 25, 2019
This book is so we'll researched, and expertly told. Feeling privileged having read it. A powerful volume.
December 7, 2018
Before the Industrial Revolution manufacturing was done by small scale cottage industries working at the same slow pace as they had for many centuries past. It was labor intensive and worked by hand, but because there was so little automation, there was also less of an impact on the environment. The Industrial Revolution would change all that, for better and for worse. The powered looms made finished cloth much cheaper for consumers but condemned workers to the “dark Satanic mills” that Blake described.
William Rosen finds, in the steam engine, the perfect symbol of the Industrial Revolution. It was both the key piece of technology that led to the automation of numerous industries, and the symbol of the new age. His book traces the accumulative steps of refinement that started with a device for de-watering mines, so fuel hungry it had to be placed next to the mine shaft it served, and so inefficient it could only lift water a short distance vertically. Smart men like James Watt and Oliver Evans looked at it and started making improvements so that it became safer, used less fuel, and produced vastly more power. The book is not a technical manual, and does not go into the engineering involved in each improvement, but describes them in simple, clear language that the casual reader will have no trouble understanding.
An important thread that runs through the book concerns the political and philosophical underpinnings of the Industrial Revolution. Why did it take off in England, rather than France, or China, or the Netherlands? The answer appears to be that England was willing to take the bold and imaginative step of allowing ideas to be protected as property, whereas previously the only patentable things were things, physical inventions. With the new laws ideas could be protected long enough to allow the inventors to profit from them, giving an incentive to innovate, and the British legal system was sufficiently advanced to give them confidence that the courts would back up their claims.
And so the revolution gathered steam, literally and metaphorically. The steam engine made mining more productive, allowing the extraction of more coal at a cheaper price, which made the automation of other industries, such as textiles, possible. Increased textile production put pressure on the transportation networks, which were reliant on horse drawn wagons or barges, and provided incentives for further developments of the steam engine, leading to the railroads. Within a few decades the landscape of England had changed forever, and the ideas were being exported around the world.
Rosen’s book does a fine job of putting all the pieces together: political, scientific, industrial, and social. This book can serve as a good primer for understanding how the modern world came about.
William Rosen finds, in the steam engine, the perfect symbol of the Industrial Revolution. It was both the key piece of technology that led to the automation of numerous industries, and the symbol of the new age. His book traces the accumulative steps of refinement that started with a device for de-watering mines, so fuel hungry it had to be placed next to the mine shaft it served, and so inefficient it could only lift water a short distance vertically. Smart men like James Watt and Oliver Evans looked at it and started making improvements so that it became safer, used less fuel, and produced vastly more power. The book is not a technical manual, and does not go into the engineering involved in each improvement, but describes them in simple, clear language that the casual reader will have no trouble understanding.
An important thread that runs through the book concerns the political and philosophical underpinnings of the Industrial Revolution. Why did it take off in England, rather than France, or China, or the Netherlands? The answer appears to be that England was willing to take the bold and imaginative step of allowing ideas to be protected as property, whereas previously the only patentable things were things, physical inventions. With the new laws ideas could be protected long enough to allow the inventors to profit from them, giving an incentive to innovate, and the British legal system was sufficiently advanced to give them confidence that the courts would back up their claims.
And so the revolution gathered steam, literally and metaphorically. The steam engine made mining more productive, allowing the extraction of more coal at a cheaper price, which made the automation of other industries, such as textiles, possible. Increased textile production put pressure on the transportation networks, which were reliant on horse drawn wagons or barges, and provided incentives for further developments of the steam engine, leading to the railroads. Within a few decades the landscape of England had changed forever, and the ideas were being exported around the world.
Rosen’s book does a fine job of putting all the pieces together: political, scientific, industrial, and social. This book can serve as a good primer for understanding how the modern world came about.
February 4, 2018
Why did the steam engine emerge on the island of Great Britain in the 18th and 19th century? The basic principles were known to the Greeks. The Chinese had coal. Other countries had relatively educated populations and more people to draw from for their inventors.
Rosen argues that the British developed a unique innovative culture. Before this time, inventions were kept secret as long as possible so that the original inventor could make money on it. Since sharing information is required for an innovative culture, secrets benefited the businesses that had them, but not the field of study. Also, there was no incentive to invent things, like steam engines, that could be easily reverse-engineered.
Enter the patent. When an inventor could share an idea, but still profit off of it, new possibilities arose in the way that people learned and created.
More thoughts on my blog, including a link to the day that I visited Crofton Pumping Station, The Most Powerful Idea in the World
Rosen argues that the British developed a unique innovative culture. Before this time, inventions were kept secret as long as possible so that the original inventor could make money on it. Since sharing information is required for an innovative culture, secrets benefited the businesses that had them, but not the field of study. Also, there was no incentive to invent things, like steam engines, that could be easily reverse-engineered.
Enter the patent. When an inventor could share an idea, but still profit off of it, new possibilities arose in the way that people learned and created.
More thoughts on my blog, including a link to the day that I visited Crofton Pumping Station, The Most Powerful Idea in the World
May 13, 2022
Never thought that the steam engine would peek my interest so much that I’d read 320p about it.
But this book sure did.
Enjoyed the mix of pop cultural references (iPod etc) and how that relates to innovation in comparison with the steam engine.
Sometimes the author takes a long detour and at the moment it can be hard to understand why he does, but then a few pages down you understand how it links with the rocket itself.
It’s a long path to creat these standardized and global innovations, but it’s important that we encourage innovators to put in the time to do it (even though as the author explains it seldom does turn profitable for them). But we need them more than ever as patents are just a part of it.
Have put in notes on every third page which should mean that there’s a lot of good stuff in it.
Read even though you’re not interested about the steam engine itself but more to understand how innovation takes shape
But this book sure did.
Enjoyed the mix of pop cultural references (iPod etc) and how that relates to innovation in comparison with the steam engine.
Sometimes the author takes a long detour and at the moment it can be hard to understand why he does, but then a few pages down you understand how it links with the rocket itself.
It’s a long path to creat these standardized and global innovations, but it’s important that we encourage innovators to put in the time to do it (even though as the author explains it seldom does turn profitable for them). But we need them more than ever as patents are just a part of it.
Have put in notes on every third page which should mean that there’s a lot of good stuff in it.
Read even though you’re not interested about the steam engine itself but more to understand how innovation takes shape
June 29, 2018
This book traces the evolution of thought and a system of laws designed to protect ideas as patents for a limited time against the back drop of technological growth commonly called the industrial revolution. It carefully tells the stories of some of the key players in the development of steam power and the obstacles they faced. It explains why incremental advances added to greater prosperity and higher standards of living, especially in Great Britain and its former colonies, from the 19th century on. Some outside the patent industry or less interested in the legal foundations of the wave of innovation we are still riding may get bored by the level of detail in this book, but it helps make the author's point that scientific thinking and the spread of ideas that enable new industries were the most powerful ideas in human history.
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