The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century was a period of social and technological changes in which manufacturing began to rely on steam power, fueled primarily by coal, rather than on water or wind. The causes of the Industrial Revolution remain a topic for debate with some historians seeing it as an outgrowth from social changes of the enlightenment and colonial expansion of the 17th century. .
The Industrial Revolution may be defined as the application of power-driven machinery to manufacturing. It had its beginning in remote times, and is still continuing in some places. In the eighteenth century all of Western Europe began to industrialized rapidly, but in England the process was almost highly accelerated. England's head start may be attributed to the emergence of a number of simultaneous factors.
The Industrial Revolution began in the Midlands area of England and spread throughout England and into continental Europe and the northern United States in the 19th century. The steam engine provided a landmark in the industrial development of Europe. The first modern steam engine was built by an engineer, Thomas Newcomen, in 1705 to improve the pumping equipment used to eliminate seepage in tin and copper mines. Newcomen's idea was to put a vertical piston and cylinder at the end of a pump handle. He put steam in the cylinder and then condensed it with spray of cold water; the vacuum created allowed atmospheric pressure to push the piston down. In 1763 James watt, an instrument-maker for Glasgow University, began to make improvements on Newcomen's engine. He made it a reciprocating engine, thus changing it from an atmospheric to a true "steam engine." He also added a crank and flywheel to provide rotary motion. .
Before the improvements made to the pre-existing steam engine by James Watt and others, all manufacturing had to rely for power on the wind or water mills or muscle power produced by animals or humans.