This was Alan and Mary’s favorite spot, crawling up through the twisting pipes and gears to the top of the steam vent and looking out over London. They had known each other for years, Alan’s dad and Mary’s dad were good friends, as well as manager and employee, and despite the difference between the rather poor Mary and the middle class Alan, they still had fun together.

“Look,” Alan pointed to the harbor, where one could see a strange beetle-like contraption seemingly crawl out of the water. “That is the new WaterBeetle automata! The world’s first amphibious automata, and I hear it has nearly seven boilers to provide the power!”

“Yeah, but can you imagine riding on the thing?” Mary did not seem as enthused, “I imagine I would be sick in a second.”

“And yet you could ride that old Slepnir-A from Germany…” Alan teased, referring to a luxury horse replica automata that had been brought in to their father’s plant for repair. Alan had snuck Mary in because she had begged him to let her ride it, they had been caught, and for some reason Alan was the only one punished for it! He could hardly sit down for a week afterwards and Mary had the nerve to laugh at him as he grimaced too!

Mary blushed, “That was different!”

“Sure it was…”

“Those are used in those new carriage automata you know!” Mary struggled to justify herself, “They are the epitome of class!”

“Or perhaps the epitome of useless,” Alan mumbled. “Have you ever seen the fuel conversion rate for those things? I cannot imagine having the money to run one!”

“Efficiency isn’t everything!”

That was true, Alan supposed. Sometimes he felt the constant march towards a more efficient design had taken all the art out of steamworks, and taken a lot of the people out of it too. He looked at his best friend and had to admit he was worried. Alan had heard rumors about new automata that replaced lineworkers in automata factories, and if that was true, many people would lose their jobs.

“Oi,” Mary elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t look so glum, you will ruin my mood.”

“No reason to hit me though?”

“Toughen up,” Mary laughed. “You would think you would be used to it by now.”

“I thought you would eventually stop.”

“See, that is where you went wrong.”

They both laughed and went to climb down the stacks to head home. They parted and went their separate ways at the same familiar street with a automata barker, well worn from years of service, selling magazines by the road.

“Is Labor in Crisis in 1793? Savery Automata may eliminate the common man!”

Alan frowned, but Mary simply waved goodbye and skipped off. Honestly, she should pay more attention to the world around her. At fifteen years old, shouldn’t she be more mature? Still, he was trying to wipe off the coal dust and oil so that his mother wouldn’t throw a fit when he came home, so maybe he should not be talking.

***

In 1698, Thomas Savery built the world's first steam engine to pump water out of mines. But as he watched his contraption run, he started to think about possibilities and The Savery Machine Company was born. When Thomas died in 1715 the company had already begun to produce fantastic and wonderful new inventions using pressurized steam and an assortment of gears and springs. Machines that could walk, run, build, and even record sounds and speech were built! In 1730, the first of what could truly be called “automata” was made, a boxy four legged machine called “The Auroch” after the ancient Greek bulls. Able to work on any terrain and capable of pulling more and longer than any oxen or engine built, it took the country by storm. Over the next few decades competition between the Savery Company and the Newcomen Company drove the automata industry to new heights and now London was unrecognizable compared to the city just sixty years ago.

A grand and glorious metropolis of steam and whirring gears and smokestacks, and Britain itself was on the ascendancy. Even with the rebellions in the American Colonies, the Empire was spreading over the globe and goods and services were pouring on to the islands.

For those well off enough to afford it. Automation had outpaced education, and now many workers were starting to lose their jobs as they were replaced by steam and coal, for all the glory of the wealthier sections of the city, sprawling coal-dust slums were also starting to emerge.

Truly, no one could see what the future would hold.