This book was written by Earl Cook and published in 1976. Below is a partial, chronological list of the advancements in the power output of heat engine technology provided by Cook (1976, p. 29).
This list illustrates that the power of these engines has continued to go up over time and there are non-linear increases that correspond to each of the first three industrial revolutions: 1st 1760-1840, 2nd 1870-1914, and 3rd 1947-2009. The research by Cook provides evidence that human social systems have evolved in a manner that is consistent with the maximum power principle and the maximum entropy production principle. This research supports these principles in a historical fashion that is similar to the way the fossil record supports the concept of punctuated equilibrium (Eldredge and Gould, 1972, 1993).
Cook, E. 1976. Man, Energy, Society. W. H. Freeman.
Eldredge, N., Gould, S.J. 1972. Punctuated equilibria: An alternative to phyletic gradualism. In Schopf, T.J.M. (ed.). Models in Paleobiology. San Francisco, CA: Freeman Cooper, pp. 82-115.
Eldredge, N., Gould, S.J. 1993. Punctuated equilibrium comes of age. Nature 366: 223-227. England, J. 2013. Statistical Physics of Self Replication. The Journal of Chemical Physics 139/12: 121923/1-121923/8.