In 1760, an artillery commander from France named Cugnot was ordered to develop a steam-powered tractor to haul cannons. This was the prototype of the steam engine. But it consumed too much coal, was too cumbersome, and easily got stuck in marshes. The army of France therefore did not continue investing in Cugnot, and the invention was shelved.
Britain was different. The first to use mine tracks were coal companies, and coal enterprises could continuously invest money in steam-engine technology.
Britain's railway gauge was seven feet, roughly the width of two horses' rumps. Early trains were produced by carriage companies that had switched trades, while french railways used the metric system. Likewise, railways in Belgium would use the metric system, and Belgium's french-speaking regions were mainly mining areas.
While promoting the Civil Code, they also had to implement the metric system. This had already been attempted during the Directory era, though with little effect. Catholicism was persecuted, and conscription even provoked peasant uprisings. At the current stage, it was impossible to build railways on the scale she remembered; neither the technology nor the funding was sufficient.
Expanding the port of Antwerp would also benefit the British, who could transport ore here for processing. In Georgiana's memory, Britain had factories first and railways afterward, with the railways linking those factories together, rather than following the ancient model of building mills and towns along canals.
A scientist's genius depended on himself; an engineer's genius depended on society. Newton and Watt were entirely different people. Newton could work out the principles of classical mechanics in his study, while Watt had to assemble things in the Soho Manufactory. Steam-engine assemblers were currently the most sought-after profession. The Prussians had poached an engineer and copied the steam engine, while Russia had "packaged" three hundred engineers