Harnessing of Power

This book examines how the 19th century’s transport legacy of bicycles, trains, ocean-going steamers, trucks, trams, buses and cars arose, creating numerous new technologies and markets. Nothing like this range of transport changes had occurred before, and the 20th century changes were incremental compared with those of the 19th century. The book explores where the key transport features came from, and why there were so many inventions, innovations, and inconsistencies. The Industrial Revolution was a key part of the process as it had strong links with transport developments. This text adopts a broad, global perspective, but has a strong British orientation, as the Industrial Revolution was a process predominantly initiated and implemented in Britain. Nevertheless, when the Revolution lost momentum, Britain began to lose its leadership. By century’s end, France and south-western Germany were dominant change-makers and the USA was appearing on the horizon. The book also highlights the many individual inventors and entrepreneurs who caused the dramatic transport changes, and notes that they did this predominantly through individual initiatives to satisfy personal, rather than corporate or national, goals and that they were often hindered, rather than aided, by officialdom.