The Steam Engine"In the endless search for energy sources, the invention of the steam engine changed the face of the earth." (Siegel, Preface) The steam engine was the main source of energy during the British Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The steam engine opened up a whole new world to everyone. The steam engine maximized production, efficiency, reliability, minimized time, amount of labor and use of animals. The steam engine revolutionized the Eastern Hemisphere in general, especially European society. What does revolution really mean? It means that something like the steam engine produced a radical change in something, and this something is European Society. The steam engine in particular brought about a radical change in work, the transport of goods and travel. The invention of the steam engine revolutionized European society by allowing tasks to be carried out more quickly, economically and reliably. The use of the steam engine in various professions revolutionized numerous aspects of Western European society. The first major use of the steam engine came in 1776. The steam engine was used to show Cornish miners how successful it could be in removing water from mine shafts. This proved to be of great importance to the Cornish people, because one of their major problems was the flooding of mine shafts. (The Penetration of the Industry by Steam Power) Mine owners “were concerned…that the mines would have to be closed unless the water was pumped out of the shafts.” “The engine successfully lifted water from the bottom of deep mines.” (Siegel, 17 years old) This prevented the closure of the mines, which were essential for promoting the economy. Not only did the steam engine save the mines, but it provided a method of extraction that proved to be extremely faster than traditional techniques. One of the major incomes for the English was found in their textile industry. In the textile sector, the internal system presented many problems for traders. They had difficulty regulating workmanship standards and maintaining schedules for completing work. Sometimes workers sold some of the yarn or cloth for their own profit. As demand for textiles increased, merchants often had to compete with each other for the limited amount of workers available in the manufacturing sector, which increased merchants' costs. As a result, merchants increasingly turned to machinery, powered by the steam engine, for increased production and also turned to factories for central control over their workers..