Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the thermal energy that exists in steam, converting it to mechanical work. Steam engines were used in pumps, locomotive trains, steam ships and steam tractors, and were essential to the Industrial Revolution. They are still used for electrical power generation using steam turbines.

Invention

The first steam device, the aeolipile, was invented by Heron of Alexandria, a Greek, in the 1st century AD, but used only as a toy. Incidently 700 years earlier in Corinth Greece, rail tracks were invented; however the Greeks never thought of putting the two together.

Related Topics:
''aeolipile'' - Heron of Alexandria - Greek - 1st century

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Denis Papin, a French physicist, built a working model of a steam engine after observing steam escaping from his pressure cooker in about 1679. Sir Samuel Morland also developed ideas for a steam engine during the same period. Early industrial steam engines were designed by Thomas Savery (1698), Thomas Newcomen (1712), and James Watt (1769), each adding new refinements. In 1802 William Symington built the "first practical steamboat", and in 1807 Robert Fulton used the Watt steam engine to power the first commercially successful steamboat.

Related Topics:
Denis Papin - Pressure cooker - 1679 - Samuel Morland - Thomas Savery - 1698 - Thomas Newcomen - 1712 - James Watt - 1769 - William Symington - Robert Fulton - Watt steam engine - Steamboat

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Early engines worked by the vacuum of condensing steam, whereas later types (such as steam locomotives) used the power of expanding steam.

Related Topics:
Vacuum - Steam locomotive

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