While Hero's aeolipile was created as a novelty, not a means of speeding up production, it is nevertheless the first known device to transform steam into rotary motion. 

A Spanish mining administrator named Jerónimo de Ayanz is thought to have been the first person to solve the problem of flooded mines. In 1606, de Ayanz registered the first patent for a machine that used steam power to propel water from mines. The Spanish inventor used his steam engine to remove water from silver mines in Guadalcanal, Seville.

Using two steam boilers, Savery devised a nearly continuous system for pumping water from mines. But despite the early success of Savery's system, it was soon discovered that his engine was only capable of drawing water from shallow depths, a problem that needed to be overcome if steam engines were to function in deep mines.

Despite it's being an improvement on Savery's initial rendering of the steam engine, Newcomen's atmospheric engine also had its flaws. The machine was highly inefficient, requiring a constant flow of cold water to cool the all-important steam cylinder as well as a constant energy source to reheat the cylinder.

Regardless of this major drawback, Newcomen's engine design went unchallenged for the next 50-or-so years and, aside from pumping out mines, was also used to drain wetlands, supply water to towns and even power factories and mills by pumping water from below a water wheel to above it for re-use.

To do this, Watt developed a separate condenser, which allowed the steam cylinder to be maintained at a constant temperature and dramatically improved the functionality of Newcomen's engine.

For financial reasons, Watt wasn't immediately able to manufacture his new and improved atmospheric engine. But by 1776, he had formed a partnership with Matthew Boulton, an English manufacturer and engineer.

With financial backing from Boulton, Watt developed a single-acting (and later, a double-acting) rotative steam engine that, along with Watt's signature separate condenser, featured a parallel motion mechanism that doubled the power of the existing steam cylinder. The Boulton-Watt engine was also the first that allowed the machine's operator to control the engine speed with a device called a centrifugal governor. 

Watt's improvements to the steam engine, combined with Boulton's vision of a nation powered by steam, facilitated the rapid adoption of steam engines across the United Kingdom and, eventually, the United States. By the 1800s, steam engines were powering mills, factories, breweries and a host of other manufacturing operations. In 1852, the first flight of a steam-powered airship took place. Future improvements of the steam engine led to modern day inventions such as: trains, ships, tractors.