How an ancient curiosity evolved to power the modern world
Steam begins with a simple physical surprise: when water is heated, it expands with extraordinary force. In this short video, Bill Hammack, an engineer and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shows how that 1,600-fold increase in volume became one of the great engines of modern life. Through clear demonstrations, historical examples and elegant explanations, he follows steam power from a curious ancient device in the 2nd century BCE to the late-19th-century turbine, whose descendants still help generate electricity around the world today.
Created as a companion to Hammack’s book The Things We Make (2023), the film is more than a history of machines. It offers a lucid account of engineering itself: a discipline that turns natural laws into practical systems, refining wonder into power, motion and work. The result is a compact and illuminating lesson in how human ingenuity learned to make pressure useful.
Video by Engineer Guy
Producers: Rohan Bhatt, Nick Damen, Finn Hall
