An early start

The industrial revolution began in 1711 in the United States with it's smoke stacks and railroads. My empire of Persia is way ahead of our beloved United States. My industrial revolution has just began at the year 1680 AD. I have just gained the resource of steam power, and I have a ton of coal mines all around my land. My empire has produced many important scientists working on the technological advancements for my country. They have been strategically placed all around my empire no matter what size the city is. I figure that there is no need to have two large cities next to each other to both have engineers. I have found that by spreading the scientists and engineers around my empire I am ensuring a quicker process of discovering new technological ideas. With good trade routes between my cities my engineers in each city will share the newly aquired technologies with other countries. With the invention of the railroad, this process has gotten much quicker. The perfection of steam engine manufacturing came about by James Watt. At the age of thirteen he was making models of machines. He found himself at the University at Glasgow, and in 1763 he was fully subcumed by the invention of the unsatisfactory steam engine invented by Newcomen. He experimented with steam pressures, cylinder designs, and valves, and by 1796 he had developed a strong and effiient engine. Although Watt gets most of the credit for inventing the steam engine, he could not have done it without John Wilkinson perfecting the piston-cylinder. Before Wilkinson cylinders and pistons were being made of wood and rapidly wored out, but Wilkinson perfected it and made it with iron bellows. Somewhere in my empire I have an engineer/s that has invented the steam engine, making my empire far advanced than any other. It has improved my trade dramatically, and I can see those advances in newly aquired cities (through domination) or newly built cities. The cities are growing much faster than usual. This is just the early start to my industrial revolution. I plan on continuing my advancments with machines until the game ends with my empire winning the space race.