Steam Engine: Did you mean...?

A Royal Mint steam hammer, a device invented by James Nasmyth (1808-1890) in 1839 during the Industrial Revolution. (The Science Museum, London)

During the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), textile production was transformed from a cottage industry to a highly mechanised one where workers were present only to make sure the carding, spinning, and weaving machines never stopped. Driven...

The Difference Engine was invented by the Englishman Charles Babbage (1791-1871) in 1822. This example is a modern model of Babbage's Mark II, designed c. 1848. Like most other inventions of the Industrial Revolution, Babbage built on the...

The interior of the engine house during John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry, immediately before the door is broken down by US Marines. Note hostages on the left. Illustration in Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, v. 8, no. 205, 5 November...

View of a steam locomotive on the coast of Yokohama at the time of the opening of Yokohama station, drawing by Utagawa Hiroshige III, 1874. Hessische Kulturstiftung.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) was a British engineer and a key figure of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). Brunel masterminded the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol, designed and built innovative giant steamships...

The Luddites, named after their legendary leader Ned Ludd, were workers who protested at the mechanization of the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution. From 1811 to 1816, the violent strategy of the Luddites was to smash the...

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, also known as the Me 109, was Germany's most important single-seater fighter plane throughout the Second World War (1939-45). Produced in greater numbers than any other German plane, the fighter was a match for the...

The Supermarine Spitfire was a single-seater fighter plane, one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War (1939-45). Employed by the Royal Air Force in such crucial encounters as the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, the...

In which John Green wraps up revolutions month with what is arguably the most revolutionary of modern revolutions, the Industrial Revolution. While very few leaders were beheaded in the course of this one, it changed the lives of more people...