During the Industrial Revolution, the social and economic consequences of harnessing steam power were immense. The parallel between the effect of steam-powered machines and the coming of automation in our own times is the focus of this Jackdaw. Hands-on documents include photographs, diagrams, engravings and pictorial chart. Historian: John Langdon-Davies. The contents of this Jackdaw feature:

• Watt’s Steam Engine
• Hero’s Magic Machines
• Savery and Newcomen
• James Watt
• Steam and Machines
• Steam and People

• Portrait of James Watt, engraved from the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, with a facsimile of Watt’s signature.
• A page from the manuscript copy of Hero’s “Pneumatics,” in the original Greek.
• Engraving of Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine erected in 1712 at Dudley.
• The entry of James Watt’s specification for his steam engine in the Close Rolls at the Public Record Office.
• Watt’s single action pumping engine and rotative engine — photographs and diagrams.
• Letter from Robert Fulton ordering an engine for his steamboat.
• Contemporary illustrations of the first steamship, first railway locomotive and an early steam coach.
• Population map of Great Britain in 1841.
• The uses of steam power: a pictorial chart.