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Secondary sourceBook1858

The Triumphs of Steam: Stories of Watt, Arkwright and Stephenson

E. Burrows · 1858

A popular 1858 book for young readers by E. Burrows, with stories of James Watt, Richard Arkwright and George Stephenson. It was illustrated by John Gilbert.

This popular book for young readers tells stories of Watt's life, so it shows how he was presented to children in the nineteenth century.

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The Triumphs of Steam: Stories of Watt, Arkwright and StephensonPDF · 276 pages
E. Burrows, The Triumphs of Steam, 1858, illustrated by John Gilbert. Scanned PDF, Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This is a book titled The Triumphs of Steam, or Stories from the Lives of Watt, Arkwright and Stephenson, written by E. Burrows and published in 1858. The title page says it has illustrations by John Gilbert and was published in New York by Thomas Nelson and Sons. The book is dedicated to Robert Stephenson. The scan students see comes from a copy held by the University of California, Davis.

Why it matters

The book was written for young readers and presents James Watt alongside two other inventors, Richard Arkwright and George Stephenson. Its preface says the author drew on the Life of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles for the general narrative, which shows how popular stories were built from earlier biographies. It reveals how steam-era inventors were presented to children in the 1800s.

Look closer

  • What does the illustration caption of young Watt show about how he is pictured?
  • Why might a writer choose to tell the stories of three inventors together?
  • Where did the author get her information, and how might that affect the stories?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of James Watt on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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