who developed the steam engine that could drive machinery
Watt steam engine The Watt steam engine (alternatively known as the Boulton and Watt steam engine) was the first type of steam engine to make use of a separate condenser. It was a vacuum or "atmospheric" engine using steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to create a partial vacuum beneath the piston. The difference between atmospheric pressure above the piston and the partial vacuum below drove the piston down the cylinder. James Watt avoided the use of high pressure steam because of safety concerns.[1] Watt's design became synonymous with steam engines, due in no small part to his business partner, Matthew Boulton.
Cotton mill Before 1780, only water power was available to drive large mills,[44] but they were dependent on a constant flow of water and built in rural locations, causing problems of labour supply, transportation of materials and access to urban merchants for large mill-owners.[45] Steam engines had been used to pump water since the invention of the atmospheric engine by Thomas Newcomen in 1712[46] and, starting with the engine installed at Arkwright's Haarlem Mill in Wirksworth, Derbyshire in 1780, were used to supplement the supply of water to the water wheels of cotton mills.[47]