Editing Newcomen atmospheric engine (section)

==Precursors==
Prior to Newcomen a number of small [[steam]] devices of various sorts had been made, but most were essentially novelties.<ref name=rochestercapone>[http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/Chapter1.html University of Rochester, NY, ''The growth of the steam engine'' online history resource, chapter one.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204034636/http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/Chapter1.html |date=4 February 2012 }}</ref> Around 1600 a number of experimenters used steam to power small [[fountain]]s working like a [[coffee percolator]]. First a container was filled with water via a pipe, which extended through the top of the container to nearly the bottom.  The bottom of the pipe would be submerged in the water, making the container airtight.  The container was then heated to make the water boil.  The steam generated pressurized the container, but the inner pipe, immersed at the bottom by liquid, and lacking an airtight seal at top, remained at a lower pressure; expanding steam forced the water at the bottom of the container into and up the pipe to spurt out of a [[nozzle]] on top. These devices had limited effectiveness but illustrated the principle's viability.

In 1606, the [[Spaniard]], [[Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont]] demonstrated and was granted a patent for a steam powered water pump. The pump was successfully used to drain the inundated mines of [[Guadalcanal, Spain]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Garcia|first=Nicolas|title=Mas alla de la Leyenda Negra|year=2007|publisher=Universidad de Valencia|location=Valencia|isbn=9788437067919|pages=443–454}}</ref>

In 1662 [[Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester]], published a book containing several ideas he had been working on.<ref>[http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/dircks/cover.html Century of Inventions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807134258/http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/dircks/cover.html |date=7 August 2007 }}</ref> One was for a steam-powered pump to supply water to fountains; the device alternately used a partial [[vacuum]] and steam pressure. Two containers were alternately filled with steam, then sprayed with cold water making the steam within condense; this produced a partial vacuum that would draw water through a pipe up from a [[water well|well]] to the container. A fresh charge of steam under pressure then drove the water from the container up another pipe to a higher-level header before that steam condensed and the cycle repeated. By working the two containers alternately, the delivery rate to the header tank could be increased.

===Savery's "Miner's Friend"===
In 1698 [[Thomas Savery]] patented a steam-powered pump he called the "Miner's Friend",<ref>[http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/savery/ The Miners Friend] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090511121051/http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/savery |date=11 May 2009 }}</ref> essentially identical to Somerset's design and almost certainly a direct copy.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Savery and the Beginning of the Steam Engine |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/thomas-savery-steam-engine-4070969 |access-date=2024-11-06 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref> The process of cooling and creating the vacuum was fairly slow, so Savery later added an external cold water spray to quickly cool the steam.

Savery's invention cannot be strictly regarded as the first steam "engine" since it had no moving parts and could not transmit its power to any external device. There were evidently high hopes for the Miner's Friend, which led Parliament to extend the life of the patent by 21&nbsp;years, so that the 1699 patent would not expire until 1733. Unfortunately, Savery's device proved much less successful than had been hoped.

A theoretical problem with Savery's device stemmed from the fact that a vacuum could only raise water to a maximum height of about {{convert|30|ft|m|0|abbr=on}}; to this could be added another {{convert|40|ft|m|0|abbr=on}}, or so, raised by steam pressure. This was insufficient to pump water out of a mine. In Savery's pamphlet, he suggests setting the boiler and containers on a ledge in the mineshaft and even a series of two or more pumps for deeper levels. Obviously these were inconvenient solutions and some sort of mechanical pump working at surface level – one that lifted the water directly instead of "sucking" it up – was desirable. Such pumps were common already, powered by horses, but required a vertical reciprocating drive that Savery's system did not provide.  The more practical problem concerned having a boiler operating under pressure, as demonstrated when [[Thomas Savery#Application of the steam pump|the boiler of an engine at Wednesbury exploded]], perhaps in 1705.

===Denis Papin's experimental steam cylinder and piston===
[[Louis Figuier]] in his monumental work<ref>Figuier, Louis "Merveilles de la science" Furne Jouvet et Cie, Paris 1868. Vol 1, pp. 53,54</ref> gives a full quotation of [[Denis Papin]]'s paper published in 1690 in ''Acta eruditorum'' at Leipzig, entitled ''"Nouvelle méthode pour obtenir à bas prix des forces considérables"'' (A new method for cheaply obtaining considerable forces). It seems that the idea came to Papin whilst working with [[Robert Boyle]] at the [[Royal Society]] in London. Papin describes first pouring a small quantity of water into the bottom of a vertical cylinder, inserting a piston on a rod and after first evacuating the air below the piston, placing a fire beneath the cylinder to boil the water away and create enough steam pressure to raise the piston to the top end of the cylinder. The piston was then temporarily locked in the upper position by a spring catch engaging a notch in the rod. The fire was then removed, allowing the cylinder to cool, which condensed steam back into water, thus creating a vacuum beneath the piston. To the end of the piston rod was attached a cord passing over two pulleys and a weight hung down from the cord's end. Upon releasing the catch, the piston was sharply drawn down to the bottom of the cylinder by the pressure differential between the atmosphere and the created vacuum; enough force was thus generated to raise a {{convert|60|lb|kg|abbr=on}} weight. "Several of his papers were put before the Royal Society between 1707 and 1712 [including] a description of his 1690 atmospheric steam engine, similar to that built and [subsequently] put into use by Thomas Newcomen in 1712."<ref>Per [[Denis Papin]], accessed 2023-01-07.</ref>