Steam History
Steam engines reached a Modern perfection in the 1800s, driving the Industrial Revolution, as well as the social, economic, and environmental changes it wrought. Large population urban centers grew into being on an unprecedented scale, along with their attendant delights and horrors, hopes and fears.
Steam powered the human enterprise on a then unmatched scale: populations increased exponentially, rigid class hierarchies solidified, a new middle and merchant class emerged, class mobility was possible for a few, feudalism ended, a permanent underclass was created, slavery ended, virtual factory slavery was instituted, dehumanization occurred on a mass scale, common resources and lands were privatized, time and distance were collapsed, social distance became greater, industrial family farming created prosperity for North American farmers, industrial farming practices took over, science and medicine advanced, environmental destruction proceeded, empires dominated, the destruction of indigenous folkways and peoples accelerated, and a global mass culture was formed….
The history of the steam traction engine in North America offers a sad admonition of progress and its discontents. Steam power fulfilled the hopes of 19th century farmers, yet was based on the actualized fears of Native Americans whose oft ill-gotten, “uninhabited” land was farmed on a scale made possible only by steam power. Don’t be fooled, there’s blood on that plough, a sort of ritual agricultural sacrifice as old as time, which comes half-circle a century later. In the 1980s those same steam tractor manufacturers had become big petroleum based agri-business conglomerates. They sold half-million dollar combines to farmers, giving them disastrous financing deals as part of a bargain that ruined many family farmers and lives. As the song goes, “there’ll be blood on the scarecrow, blood on the plough,” so goes the cycle of hope and fear.
These days, energy generation is centralized and more (or less) cleanly produced. Electrical power is the norm. However, steam power is very much still with us, literally. Coal still burns and uranium decays to heat water to make steam to rotate turbines to spin generators to create electricity.
We here at KSW argue that steam engines connect us to our past, our hopes, dreams, desires and our fears, nightmares, dark urges, and false nostalgia. This connection to our past speaks to our present and to the future.