Steam power involves much more than heating water in a container. Vessels, pipes, and machinery must confine pressure safely enough to do work. Engine-room injuries make the danger concrete and show why metallurgy mattered alongside the basic idea. Practical use also depended on cultural memory: a large enough population had to preserve skills and pass them between generations of operators and builders. Naval propulsion therefore depended on an entire technical culture as well as an engine concept.
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Steam power as a systems problem
The opening explains why steam power needed materials, population, safety practice, and accumulated technical culture before it could reshape ships.