What happened? Well, let's go to the Thought Bubble. The innovations of the Industrial Revolution were intimately interconnected. Like, look for instance at the British textile industry. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay in 1733 dramatically increased the speed of weaving, which in turn created demand for yarn, which led to inventions like the spinning jenny and the water frame. Soon these processes were mechanized using water power until the steam engine came along to make flying shuttles really fly in these huge cotton mills. The most successful steam engine was built by Thomas, they didn't name anything after me, Newcomen, to clear water out of mines, and because water was cleared out of those mines there was more coal to power more steam engines, which eventually led to the fancying up of the Newcomen steam engine by James, I got a unit of power and a university named after me, Watt, whose engine made possible not only railroads and steamboats, but also ever more efficient cotton mills.