Waterpower in the Century of the Steam Engine

by Louis C. Hunter

In antebellum America water used for power ranked in value among such natural resources as agricultural land, timber, navigable rivers, and deposits of coal and metal ores. Waterpower, available to nearly every community, was used to ease many daily burdens and to imporve the living standards of the long succession of pioneer settlements. During the prerailroad years, waterpower was a crucial factor in the advance of American Industrialization, especially in water rich New England. Louis Hunter provides here a complete and detailed account of waterpower in the United States from Colonial Times to its gradual decline after 1900. The volume is an important contribution to technological, economic, and social history. The author examines closely the water mills of early settlements and small communities, explains the design and construction of various types of waterwheels, and discusses the importance of waterpower in the social structure of the time. He chronicles carefully the transition from simple waterwheels, used primarily for the production of grain and lumber to waterpower used in manufacturing, especially for the burgeoning textile industry.

606 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979