A view of historic steam engine displayed outside Railway Station. A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. Using boiling water to produce mechanical motion goes back about 2,000 years. Since the late 1700s steam engines become a major source of mechanical power. The first applications removing water from mines. In 1781 James Watt patented a steam engine that produced continuous rotative motion. These 10 hp engines enabled a wide range of manufacturing machinery to be powered. The engines could be sited anywhere that water and coal or wood fuel could be obtained. By 1883, engines that could provide 10,000 hp had become feasible.