The financial incentive to develop the steam engine in Britain was to remove water from coal mines so that miners could dig deeper. I discussed this in a previous post (click here), but what I didn’t discuss was why there was so much coal there to begin with.

Where did all that coal come from?

Largely as a result of being located near the equator in its very distant past, specifically during the aptly named Carboniferous period (360 – 290 million years ago), Britain was blessed with a huge load of plant life that eventually transformed into a huge load of hard coal, thanks to the fact that the plants degraded under mud and water, in the absence of oxygen.

Initially, the coal was easy to get to

Seams of this coal remained near the earth’s surface and were thus relatively easy to access, especially in areas where running rivers carved down through the earth and exposed the seams, as the River Tyne did near Newcastle.  The seams there were good, thick, and most importantly, since they were above the water line, readily accessible.

As the inventory of wood decreased, the demand for coal increased

Wood had long been the most valued of Britain’s natural resources, being used as timber for structures, as fuel for home heating and cooking, and as an energy source for industries such as brewing.  But the inventory of wood was finite. With deforestation, the availability of wood fell and the consumption of coal increased to compensate, slowly at first and then faster as the Industrial Revolution lifted off. Britain became the first western nation to mine and burn coal on a large scale. By 1600, coal had become Britain’s main source of both fuel, and by 1700, Britain was mining more coal than the rest of the world combined.

Rise in coal consumption depleted surface coal

The rise in coal consumption soon depleted the readily-available surface coal and so forced the miners to dig deeper into the earth, where water was waiting. The path to “deeper” was water removal, e.g., bucket brigade.  If the owners were fortunate, their mines were located near falling water or high winds where the associated energy could be tapped for this removal.  But for most, either manpower or horsepower was needed to bucket-out the water.  The larger mines might have up to sixty horses working round-the-clock to lift the water out.  The high costs of feeding and caring for the horses made the economic incentive to find a lower-cost option very high.

The steam engine’s value proposition

So the value proposition was set.  If one could offer a cheaper way to pump water out from deep mines, cheaper than horses, one would be given the job.  And it was this opportunity that drew the strong interest of those seeking financial reward, including those who were to invent the steam engine.

Explore more

I share more depth on Britain & coal in Chapter 26 of my book, Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics. If you’re interested in an even deeper understanding of this topic, or, more generally, a deeper understanding of the history of coal itself, I highly recommend the great resource I used, “COAL – A Human History,” by Barbara Freese (2003). Thank you for listening!

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