Now if I recall correctly the history of steam-engines it went something like this:
The brittish steamengines were for the first hundred years or so solely used in the brittish mining industry. First to pump water to prevent mines from flooding and later on to haul stuff out of the mines. To haul stuff you need rails, so you need a certain knowledge of railmaking too.
These early steamengines were rather big, (with later standards) inefficient, stationary things. Since it was costly to have them running a lot of try and error was applied to make them better. One famous succesfull improver was named Watt.
After a lot of development steamengines could be used for other things like running trains. They were not that good though. In the famous competition were Stephensons Rocket defeated Ericssons Novelty, one competing design was disqualified after it turned out they had hid a horse in the train. (Bet it would have won.)
Eventually laws of thermodynamics were formulated which gave an idea of what the machines actually did and some ways to calculate improvements and not just doing the old try and error. This is btw, were games like civilization often gets it wrong, steamengines => thermodynamics, not the other way around. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
A very important point. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
Whereas England in the 18th century didn't have that much labour; most of the peasantry was tied to the land, and labour wasn't as cheap. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
