This image is one of a pair in which the great satirical artist depicts fantastical applications of steam power. On the left a man reads a book as he strides along in his steam-driven boots, in the centre two exaggeratedly fashionable ladies drive along in a vehicle shaped like a tea-pot (perhaps a reference to Stephenson's discovery of steam locomotion by observing his mother's boiling kettle) and on the right a man takes flight in a steam powered flying machine. This is a satire ridiculing the new technology of the time. Like many artists Cruikshank was sceptical of the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. George Cruikshank became a prolific satirist in the tradition of Hogarth and James Gillray. Greatly valued by his peers, John Ruskin (one of many friends who helped out the impoverished Cruikshank financially in later life) once said that Cruikshank was the most gifted etcher since Rembrandt. Although his career began with political satires his work later focussed on book illustrations, most famously for Charles Dickens including Sketches by Boz and Oliver Twist.