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Steam power started with atmospheric engines which didn't need steel.




Not for anything useful.

To be fair, the atmospheric engine was just barely practical for pumping water out of mines. Newcomen sold over a hundred of them, but they were rapidly replaced by Watt engines or retrofitted with a new cylinder and a separate condenser. The atmospheric engine was however far too inefficient for use as a locomotive engine, or as a replacement for water power in most industrial applications.

Watt engines were also atmospheric engines, but the rest of your comment is correct.



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