Full scale working replica of 1712 Thomas Newcomen engine for pumping water from mines on the estates of Lord Dudley. Black Country Living Museum

Earliest surviving locomotive: Puffing Billy at the Science Museum

This huge building housed the four largest beam engines in Britain. They were used for moving sewage at Crossness, Bexley

Old Bess: Watt's beam engine, 1777, built by Boulton and Watt. The engine was used to raise water. Constant water was needed because a water wheel was used to drive the machinery in Boulton's Soho Manufactory in Birmingham

A steam engine is an engine that uses steam from boiling water to make it move. The steam pushes on the engine parts to make them move. Steam engines can power many kinds of machines including vehicles and electric generators.

Steam engines were used in mine pumps starting in the early 1700s century and were much improved by James Watt in the 1770s. They were very important during the industrial revolution where they replaced horses, windmills and watermills to work machines.