Enthalpy of Quintessence

In the 1700s, there was problem with mine flooding. If water were to find its way into a mine, it would quickly flood it. Several companies used laborers or donkeys to drag the water out of the mines to keep the bottom levels from being submerged.
Thomas Savery invented a steam powered engine to pump water from the lower levels out of the mine. The steam engine used a boiler to turn water into steam which then turned a turbine to provide the needed energy to pump water out. The problem was that there wasn't a good way to convert water to steam efficiently to provide a cheap way to pump the mines. That was until 1715 when Johnes Van Blatten discovered the Enthalpy of Quintessence. For a period of several hours after death, energy could be extracted from souls as they tear away from the physical realm. Van Blatten was able to quantify and use the latent enthalpy of the soul to power the boilers. For his discovery, he was knighted by the Crown and inducted as a fellow into the Royal Society. The discover of Enthalpy of Quintessence or Soul Energy as it is know called provided the basis for the industrial revolution that propelled Britain and later America into a modern age of Soul Powered Trains on transcontinental rail networks and massive transoceanic shipping vessels. Without the Van Blatten initial discovery, the world we know today would be unachievable. In fact, it is proposed that no other energy source could provide the energy needs of our world.
In 1781, an American by the name of Benjamin Franklin was able to confine Soul Energy into a capacitance vessel that allowed an indefinite storage, which allowed for an even wider application of energy. No longer did chattel need to be slaughtered on site, but instead great slaughter houses could be built out west and the energy packaged and shipped to metropolitan areas it was needed in.