History proclaims that James Watt's reinvention of the (Thomas) Newcomen steam engine with Matthew Boulton launched the Industrial Revolution and transformed the world. But history politely downplays the key business reason why people actually bought those early Boulton and Watt betas.

The answer isn't pretty; in fact, it's dank, it's wet, and it stinks. Britain's coal mine operators bought these newfangled and much improved steam engines for the same reason they had purchased the original Newcomen engines-to pump out filthy water that seeped into their mine shafts and interfered with operations. More powerful pumps meant deeper, drier and thus more profitable mines. For all intents and purposes, the Boulton and Watt steam engine initially made its money as a waste disposal unit. Going down the waste pumping learning curve generated the innovations that turned steam engines into the world's most pervasive and profitable source of industrial power.