Devon-born Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729) was among the early inventors of small steam engines and his beam engine, used solely to pump water out of coalmines, was manufactured for over fifty years from 1720. James Watt (1736-1819) from Renfrewshire then took a good look at a Newcomen engine in his workshop at Glasgow University and proceeded to make a series of improvements that would drive the mass production of the Industrial Revolution.

In 1769 he patented the addition of a condenser to separate the cooling process from the steam cylinder, thereby making it more effective and reliable. He teamed up with financier Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) and they set up a manufacturing company in Birmingham, Boulton’s home town. Further inventions patented over the years included the sun-and-planet gear enabling rotary motion, a dual-input cylinder, a centrifugal governor and a pressure indicator. He also invented the horsepower measurement and gave his name to the watt.

The fuel efficiency of Watt’s machines was enhanced by the precision boring technique invented by iron-master John Wilkinson (1728-1808). Nevertheless, Watt was reportedly reluctant to keep on increasing the size and pressure of his steam engines, but after his death, other engineers would go on to do just that and cater for heavier workloads.

(Top image [cropped]: hape662 at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

James Starley (1830-81) from West Sussex was the pioneer of the modern pedal bicycle, along with his London-born nephew, John Kemp Starley (1854-1901). The very first bicycle, nicknamed the ‘bone-shaker’, was made entirely of wood, with no pedals at all, resulting in the rider’s footwear being quickly ruined! The Starleys made the design modifications that led to the much more practical and safe version we have today.

James Starley was very mechanically-minded and began his working career repairing sewing machines and he patented several improvements to their mechanisms. It was while he was manufacturing his own models that he started to look at ways to improve a ‘bone-shaker’ brought to him from Paris. He first of all made a four-wheeled version with suspension, in 1865. In 1870 he patented the spoked wheel and made an all-metal bicycle. In 1871 he invented the Penny-Farthing, with a large wheel at the front and small wheel at the back.

He continued upgrading his design, adding pneumatic tyres, a chain, levers, and inventing the differential gear. In 1876 he patented a tricycle used by Queen Victoria (1819-1901). He even made tandem tricycles. His nephew developed the safety features and experimented with adding motors. His ‘Rover’ line eventually morphed into Rover cars.

(Image: Karen Roe at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)