1755 – The First Steam Engine put to work in America

Maybe I’m a real SteamPunk at heart …

I thought that steam engines began to be in common use after Civil War times.

Rail roads and textile manufacturing were the main applications of steam engines. Anything before that were horse powered contraptions.

I knew that steam power was used before in experimental ways – it was in the Industrial Revolution that steam engines came into their own.

Actually, it was 1755 when the first steam engine was built in America to run pumps in a copper mine in what we now know as New Jersey. Amazing !!!

It all seems like a Jules Verne novel – but it was working well before the War of Independence. Even while Benjamin Franklin was still a novice printer.

CLICK HERE to see a copy of the book about Josiah Hornblower and the first steam engine in America. Great reading for the Steampunk or any geekster …

Category: Tony Rollo Blog