The origins of the steam engine: An essay with interactive animated diagrams

[jasoncrawford]

Link post

This is a guest post written by Anton Howes and animated by Matt Brown of Extraordinary Facility. This project was sponsored by The Roots of Progress, with funding generously provided by The Institute:

Steam power did not begin with the steam engine. Long before seventeenth-century scientists discovered the true nature of vacuums and atmospheric pressure, steam- and heat-using devices were being developed. Here we’ll explore the long, little-known story of how the steam engine evolved. And have fun playing with the ancient devices.

Some of the interactive animated diagrams:

Read the full essay and try out the diagrams here.

[Scott VR]

I really enjoyed reading this and playing with the animated models. Nice work.

There is a term I tend to find reason to bring up more often than most, I suspect; that is: “steam-engine time”. I confess that I clicked the link readily after having the thought “I bet this guy will have some things to say about Steam Engine Time!” and [spoiler alert] was surprised when I got to the end.

In case the term is unfamiliar:

The actual phrase was first coined by the collector of weird, Charles Fort, in 1931, who wrote in his early fantasy novel Lo!: “A tree cannot find out, as it were, how to blossom, until comes blossom-time. A social growth cannot find out the use of steam engines, until comes steam-engine-time.”

Steam-engine-time is another name for technological determinism, which is another way to say simultaneous independent invention, Turns out simultaneous parallel discovery and invention are the norm in science and technology rather than the exception (see my previous post).

When it is steam-engine-time, steam engines will occur everywhere. But not before. Because all the precursor and supporting ideas and inventions need to be present. The Romans had the idea of steam engines, but not of strong iron to contain the pressure, nor valves to regulate it, nor the cheap fuel to power it. No idea – even steam engines — are solitary. A new idea rests on a web of related previous ideas. When all the precursor ideas to cyberspace are knitted together, cyberspace erupts everywhere. When it is robot-car-time, robot cars will come. When it is steam-engine-time, you can’t stop steam engines.

(Excerpted from a post about an interview with William Gibson on kk.org