The Independent - London, November 23rd, 1999
BRITAIN POSSESSED an inventive society in the 18th and 19th centuries. From the first use of steam power to pump water out of mines in 1712 to the turbine-powered power station of 1892, a staggering sequence of inventions of outstanding quality was made in Britain. They were also exploited. Invention of course begets invention. Invent a steam engine; someone invents a device to make the engines; then someone invents machines to be driven by the engines, which leads to setting new performance criteria and so on. Newcomen's clanking pumping engine evolved by stages into a Rolls- Royce turbo-jet....
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