Steam/Gas Engines Improvements in engine design and reduction gearing followed their separate paths. The power engineers were concerned with developing an increasing amount of pressure whether in a central plant or on-site; this involved increasing the strokes of the steam, and later the internal combustion engines. In the instance of the central steam plant, they were primarily interested in taking the power to the customer, much as the electric power company does in our day. We have the option of placing a wide variety of appliances on our power line. So it was in the Industrial Revolution, users were on the other side of the equation, developing mechanisms that would use the steam for their particular purposes -- particularly driving various kinds of mill and other factory production equipment. Other engineers developed the reduction gearing that would harness the steam. The gearing for lifting required up-and-down movement rather than the continuous motion of the production machines. The all-important belting that bridged the power and the appliances also assisted in reversing the direction. The belts became shorter and shorter until they, in the instance of lift machines, occupied a common bedplate. With the coming of hydraulic technology, new accessories were developed, including intensifiers, accumulators and counterbalancing, in an effort to efficiently drive and regulate cranes, presses, industrial lifts and elevators.