A water wheel in Derbyshire, England Getty Images/iStockphoto
The switch from water to coal-powered factories that set off the industrial revolution in 19th century Britain may not have been a result of a lack of suitable locations to build more water wheels as previously thought. Instead, droughts may have made water power less reliable and coal more attractive.
Historians battle over the precise timing of the transition in Britain from an agrarian economy powered by muscle, wood and water to a manufacturing economy powered by coal. They also disagree about the causes of this industrial revolution, which is among the…
