[fuelled6532]

Well, for the first 90 or so years, they were mostly used for draining water from mines.

The locomotion thing might not have been as obvious at the time as it is in hindsight.

[lupusreal]

The water from mines was then put into canals, which floated canal boats loaded with coal from the mines into towns. This cheap energy allowed the populations of towns to grow, and soon later powered factories in those towns.

The trains thing did come a bit later, but the steam engines were already causing a revolution.

[fuelled6532]

That's funny.

Also nonsense. The canal boats were replaced by steam railways. A hundred years later. The water in the canals came from regular sources, by gravity.

It took decades to even get steam engines that turned a shaft (as opposed to rocking a beam up and down).