In 1710 an obscure Devon ironmonger, Thomas Newcomen, invented a machine with a pump fueled by coal, used to extract water from mines, and over the next two centuries the steam engine became the dominant power source for the world's industry, electrification, and transportation. The author of A Brief History of Science and The Anthropology of Numbers here chronicles the technological driving force behind the Industrial Revolution in an engaging and insightful history that profiles inventive pioneers like James Watt, Robert Stephenson, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel while tracing economic, political, and social changes in a global perspective.