United States of Steam Timeline

James Watt, with Thomas Jefferson's support, purchased the Weymouth textile factory in New York and fitted it out to be the first industrial research laboratory for physicists, chemists, and engineers. He renamed it Weymouth Park even though the public referred to it as "The House that Steam Built". The brilliant American engineer Oliver Evans was the first to join him in 1778 even though he was only 23. Others soon followed including Colonel John Stevens who was persuaded to join in 1782. Over the next couple of decades the "House that Steam Built" continued to attract engineers from around the world (especially Eastern Europe) and became a major source of innovation for the U.S. and the world. Creating innovative steam locomotive, ship, and airship designs. They also became a world leader in optical design, steam-powered and clockwork automatons, etc. They do not directly produce weapons though many of their devices have seen military applications by the U.S. government.

Union scientists discover how to make large amounts of Aluminum cheaply. The begin testing its use in airships, allowing them to build bigger, stronger airships than the Confederacy (wooden-framed airships are much weaker and steel frame airships have to be built much smaller because they are very heavy).

The release of the plague by the South changed the complexion of the entire war. From the Union's perspective, the fact that the Confederacy had intended to use this plague on them was a monstrous act by abhorrent beings. It was no longer about states rights or the preservation of the Union. Northern politicians began calling for the complete decimation of the South in retaliation for this act. As the Rose Plague waned, the Confederacy became even more desperate because of their lack of manpower and what they saw as potential genocide on the part of the Union. The Union also feared genocide at the hands of another plague weapon from the South, The Confederacy began encouraging women to enlist in order to fill out the ranks, especially in support positions. The Union quickly followed suit and women were soon found at every level and in every branch of the services as the war became more and more desperate.

A breakthrough in centrifuge technology (originally designed to help sort gold from river sand) allowed Union researchers to refine and concentrate Uranium. The researchers (looking for gold) realized that by collecting tiny amounts of Uranium at the bottom of their samples, they had discovered a material that produced its own heat. In larger quantities they could produce Unraium cakes that were hot enough to boil water, providing them with what amounted to a permanent heat source for a steam engine. They quickly discovered that steam engines using "boiler cakes" of Uranium were almost unlimited sources of steam power but had to be lined on the inside with a very thin layer of gold (to prevent corrosion) and lined on the outside with lead (to prevent "boiler sickness").

The building of the Retribution class ironclads added a key element to the Union naval dominance at the end of the war. The Retribution used "boiler cake" technology to create a steam engine that was capable of pushing an ironclad faster and farther than the Confederate blockade runners, effectively putting an end to ALL southern trade with the outside world. Cutoff from their Europen backers the Confederacy quickly began to collapse.

The Dauntless class airship was the first of a completely new order of airships. It used a two-part balloon with the inner cells filled with Helios and the outer cells filled with hot air, giving it considerable control over its buoyancy (hot air could be added or vented at will without losing any of the primary lifting gas). This ship itself was powered by a new generation of steam turbine engines driven by "boiler cakes". By recapturing the steam after each stroke the ship didn't lose water, and never ran out of fuel. It could stay in the air for weeks at a time, travel faster and farther, and carry more than twice the equipment of any previous airship. It gave the Union a decisive control over the air.