Physicists define energy as the ability to do work, by which they mean the capability to move an object. It is a complex subject that people study over a lifetime, but some of the basic principles lie at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The science of physics is, in part, the study of energy. In less than a century, these technological developments had an enormous impact on the nature of work, the way society was organized, and the ways in which wealth was generated and shared. The new energy sources also enabled the development of reliable, high-speed transportation, in the form of trains and steam ships. Eventually these two aspects came together, in the form of steam-driven machines to spin thread or weave cloth. The other aspect was the invention of machinery that could emulate work done for centuries by skilled workers, especially in the manufacture of fabric. In particular, inventors found ways to capture and utilize the natural characteristic of water to expand when it is heated and becomes steam. One was the use of sources of energy besides muscles. There were two separate, but related, aspects to the development of new machines in the Industrial Revolution. Imagine substituting a horse for the motor of a car one or two horses could easily pull the weight of a car with its passengers, but no horse could run down the highway at sixty miles an hour, hour after hour, as a car can. Not only could the machines do the work of several living beings, machines could do it at a much faster speed. The newly invented machines, powered by burning wood or coal, or by the flowing water of a stream or river, could accomplish the same amount of work that previously required several people or several animals flexing their muscles. The Industrial Revolution started in the 1700s with the development of machines that substituted for human or animal muscle power. The Revolution Begins: Steam Engines, Railroads, and Steamboats
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