Newcomen combined a vacuum, created by cooling steam,
from Thomas Savery, with a piston from Denis
Papin.
The Newcomen engine rocked a beam up and down,
suitable for operating a pump.
Actually, the idea of harnessing steam is
ancient.
Archimedes invented a steam cannon in 212 BCE;
Leonardo da Vinci invented another steam cannon around
1485,
when it was called an architonnerre.
Heron’s aeolipile, in 70 AD,
was a simple steam turbine that did no work,
but Gerbertus powered an organ with steam in 1125.
More recently,
Taqi al-Din invented a steam jack in 1551;
Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont a steam pump in 1606;
Giovanni Branca a steam turbine in 1629;
John Wilkins a steam jack in 1648;
and Edward Somerset a water pump in 1663,
which simply used steam-pressure to drive water
up a pipe.
To improve the Newcomen engine,
Watt added a separate condensation chamber,
injected steam into the upper part
of the cylinder during the cooling cycle
(called a “double acting” engine),
and geared the engine for rotary motion.
Denis Papin
Denis Papin had collaborated with Christiaan
Huygens
on a piston-and-cylinder engine driven by exploding
gunpowder.
They gave up on that project, but it taught Papin about
pistons.
Working with Robert Boyle in 1680, Papin invented the
safety valve
and the first pressure cooker, which they called the
“steam digester”
because it was used for rendering fat and softening bones
before grinding.
Having learned from his steam digester, in 1690 Papin
created
a model steam engine that raised a weight from the
condensation of steam.
In 1704, Papin installed one of his engines in a ship to
move its paddles.
This was another first. And in 1705, working with Gottfried
Leibniz
and influenced by Thomas Savery, Papin developed an engine
that used
steam pressure rather than atmospheric pressure, yet
another first!
Smeaton, too
John Smeaton created the equation
for lift, with the coefficient of drag
that the Wright brothers used
and had to correct.
Smeaton also improved the seals
of the Newcomen steam engine
and developed a theory of how
a steam engine operates.
Why Watt?
Credit goes to James Watt
for inventing the steam engine
because using a separate condenser
and harnessing both vacuum and pressure
radically improved the efficiency
of the steam engine, and his rotary
gearing improved its usefulness.
But all this wasn’t enough. Watt’s
commercial success came about
because Matthew Boulton became
his business partner after Watt’s
original partner, John Roebuck,
defaulted. The practical and commercial
success of the steam engine
helped bring on the social and economic
changes of the industrial revolution.
Heat engines
A steam engine is a heat engine.
It converts heat into mechanical energy
like an internal combustion engine
or the earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere.
It would be tempting to say that life itself
is also a heat engine, and many have argued
one way or the other, which boils down to whether
living things have free will or are merely
driven by things they can’t control.
I imagine Samuel Johnson arguing the matter
by kicking a stone across a cobblestone street
and asking, “Do I bounce like a stone?”
Atmospheric pressure was discovered in 1643 by Evangelista
Torricelli, who invented the mercury barometer. Blaise Pascal was
able to prove that the gap at the end of the barameter was a
vacuum. Newcomen’s engine was called an atmospheric
engine because it relied on atmospheric pressure against a vacuum
created by cooling steam in a chamber. The Newcomen engine was not
driven by steam pressure.
Atmospheric pressure was discovered in 1643 by Evangelista Torricelli, who invented the mercury barometer. Blaise Pascal was able to prove that the gap at the end of the barameter was a vacuum. Newcomen’s engine was called an atmospheric engine because it relied on atmospheric pressure against a vacuum created by cooling steam in a chamber. The Newcomen engine was not driven by steam pressure.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: