Discovering Steam Power in China, 1828–1865

Before they came into contact with any steam engine, it can be argued, that the Chinese people had been exposed to the elementary principles which were employed in the building of that machine. They were familiar with the zoetrope, in which rising hot air generated by a burning candle turned vanes at the top of the paper lantern. In the 1670s, the Jesuits at the court of the Kangxi emperor (r. 1661–1722) also produced a model steam carriage and a model steam paddle-boat for his pleasure. The two models did not involve the use of a piston, for the carriage gears or paddle-wheels were turned by a jet of steam. Indeed, Chinese craftsmen also had a version of the piston, employed in the bellows used in furnaces. Those pistons were made of wood and driven by hand. None of that, however, added up to a steam engine, with the precision needed in fitting the piston to the cylinder, the gears that transformed a linear thrust to a rotary motion, and the sheer magnitude of the driving force that had to be served not on a lubricated metal and not a wooden frame. Until he or she came into contact with a steam engine, no Chinese person had imagined that any such machine was possible. The learning exercise had to begin with realizing that steam could be a major motive force.