Analysis of 18th century steam engines shows Boulton and Watt were major manufacturers, suggesting wider misconceptions.
The role of Boulton and Watt in steam engine building in the late 18th century is still widely misunderstood and over-estimated. This paper analyses the latest figures for the 25 years of Watt's patents and the wider context, based on the Early Engines Database, and confirms that B&W were the largest but not the dominant makers of steam engines.
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John Kanefsky (2025) studied this question.
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