In Europe, steam power evolved gradually throughout the eighteenth century with periods of innovation interspersed with long plateaus. It began with Thomas Savery's steam pump in 1698 and progressed through Thomas Newcomen's reciprocating atmospheric engine in 1712, culminating in James Watt and Matthew Boulton's double-acting rotative steam engine with a separate condenser between 1765 and 1790. The first steamer to complete the journey from England to India, the Enterprize, an auxiliary paddle ship equipped with sails, left Falmouth on August 16, 1825, and arrived in Calcutta 113 days later, with only 62 of those days under steam due to bad weather and exhausted fuel. By 1845, the number of steam engines in Bengal had increased significantly, from just 2 in 1822 to 67 in 1837, and to 150 by 1845, mostly imported. By then, steam power had become a prominent feature in Calcutta, with steam-engine chimneys visible in every direction, reflecting the city's burgeoning industrial landscape.
During the early 19th century, Bengal was emerging as a focal point of an imperial vision in which steam power was seen as a tool for spreading European civilization. The public history of steam power in India begins with three notable events from the 1820s.
First, in Serampore (Srirampur), just north of Calcutta, the English Baptist missionaries showcased a new steam engine imported from Thwaites and Rothwell of Bolton on March 27, 1820. This "machine of fire" drew large crowds of curious natives and Europeans alike, the latter coming to study and replicate the technology.
The second significant stationary engine in Bengal began operation on November 1, 1822, in Calcutta at Chandpal Ghat. It supplied water from the Hugli River to the city's "White Town" via aqueducts, helping to control the dust.
In the summer of 1823, the Diana Packet, the first steam vessel to float on the waters of the East, was launched. After leaving the stocks at Kyd's Yard in Kidderpore on July 12, it made a public voyage on August 9, steaming from Chandpal Ghat to Chinsurah against a strong tide and returning to Calcutta the next morning.
This era saw steam power becoming a symbol of technological advancement and colonial superiority. For example, Golak Chandra, a blacksmith from Titagarh, built a steam engine based on the missionaries' design in Serampore. His achievement was recognized at the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India's annual exhibition in Calcutta in January 1828, where he was awarded a prize of 50 rupees for his work.
Professor Amitabha Ghosh views Golak Chandra's engine as evidence against the notion of Indian technological dependency. However, the early 19th century context also highlights the tension between the diffusionist model of European superiority and the relocationist view of mutual knowledge production. The Agricultural and Horticultural Society's Prospectus, written by Baptist missionary William Carey in April 1820, emphasized the importance of including "Native Gentlemen" as members and officers to improve their estates and peasantry, thereby blending European and local knowledge and practices.
This historical period shows that while steam power and other technologies were often framed as tools for European colonization, their adoption and adaptation in India involved significant local input and expertise. The convergence of steam power, science, and colonialism in early British Bengal reveals that the transfer of technology was a complex process of hybridization influenced by unequal power dynamics.
Daniel E. White is a Professor of English at the University of Toronto, Canada. His forthcoming book, "Romanticism, Liberal Imperialism, and Technology in Early British India: 'The all-changing power of steam,'" will be published by Palgrave.
