One steam engine could do the work of many horses. It could supply the power needed to run all the machines in a factory. A steam locomotive could haul heavy loads of freight great distances in a single day. Steamships provided safe, fast, dependable water transportation. Most steam engines have a furnace in which coal, oil, or some other fuel is burned to produce heat energy.
Every steam engine has a boiler.
The heat energy produced inside the furnace or reactor changes water into steam inside the boiler. The steam expands, taking up many times the space of the original water. Steam turbines produce a rotary motion. A steam turbine has many sets of bladed wheels mounted on a long shaft. The steam enters at one end and spins the bladed wheels as it rushes past them.