Fred Dibnah traces the development of steam power from the earliest experiments in the ancient world to the modern nuclear power station.
Episode 1
The Early Pioneers
A visit to Cornwall illuminates the early history of the steam engine in Britain, which was developed to pump water from the tin mines.
Episode 2
The Transport Revolution
How the advent of steam power radically changed the way people travelled.
Episode 3
Driving the Wheels of Industry
The Lancastrian steeplejack’s continuing history of steam power charts the role of steam in Britain’s 18th- and 19th-century industrial expansion, and the use of huge stationary steam engines in mills, collieries and steel works until well into the 20th century.
Episode 4
Steam down the Road
The Lancastrian steeplejack’s continuing history of steam power looks at experiments in the use of steam for road transport that took place a full century before the invention of the car.
Episode 5
Steam on the Water
A look at how steam power revolutionised shipping, from the earliest paddle steamers with screw propellers to more modern vessels like the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Episode 6
Steam and the Modern Age
The Lancastrian steeplejack’s history of steam power concludes with a look at today’s powerful steam turbines that generate electricity and the preservation of our steam heritage in museums.
Fred Dibnah
Self - Presenter
2006 · ★ 7.5
2020 · ★ 7.1
2024 · ★ 7.8
2010 · ★ 8.8
2026 · ★ 7.5
2026 · ★ 8.1
1978 · ★ 8.0
2018 · ★ 6.4
2021 · ★ 7.3
1969 · ★ 8.2
2020 · ★ 7.4
2017 · ★ 6.3
2026 · ★ 8.7
2026 · ★ 7.7
1986 · ★ 7.0
2020 · ★ 8.1
2022 · ★ 7.3
2011 · ★ 7.7
2005 · ★ 8.0
Advertisement space available
Reach thousands of daily viewers · size 970 x 90
Reach thousands of daily viewers · size 1200 x 200