Editing Steam engine (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of the steam engine}}

=== Early experiments ===
[[File:Αιολόσφαιρα Μουσείο Κοτσανά Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Τεχνολογίας.jpg|left|thumb|200x200px|A big size reconstruction of [[Hero of Alexandria|Heron's]] aeolipile in [[Museum of Ancient Greek Technology|Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology]], Athens, Greece. ]]
One recorded rudimentary steam-powered engine was the [[aeolipile]] described by [[Hero of Alexandria]], a [[Hellenistic mathematics|Hellenistic mathematician]] and engineer in [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman Egypt]] during the first century AD.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45691 |title=turbine |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |date=18 July 2007}}</ref> In the following centuries, the few steam-powered engines known were, like the aeolipile,<ref name="Vitruvius">''"De Architectura"'': Chapter VI (paragraph 2)<br />from "Ten Books on Architecture" by [[Vitruvius]] (1st century BC), published 17, June, 08 [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/1*.html] accessed 2009-07-07</ref> essentially experimental devices used by inventors to demonstrate the properties of steam.

A rudimentary [[steam turbine]] device was described by [[Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf|Taqi al-Din]]<ref name="Hassan">[[Ahmad Y Hassan]] (1976). ''Taqi al-Din and Arabic Mechanical Engineering'', pp. 34–35. Institute for the History of Arabic Science, [[University of Aleppo]].</ref> in [[Ottoman Egypt]] in 1551 and by [[Giovanni Branca]]<ref name="Giovanni">{{cite web
  |url=http://himedo.net/TheHopkinThomasProject/TimeLine/Wales/Steam/URochesterCollection/Thurston/index.html<!-- http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/Chapter1.html -->
  |title=University of Rochester, NY, ''The growth of the steam engine'' online history resource, chapter one
  |publisher=History.rochester.edu
  |access-date=2010-02-03
  |archive-date=24 July 2011
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724003544/http://himedo.net/TheHopkinThomasProject/TimeLine/Wales/Steam/URochesterCollection/Thurston/index.html
  |url-status=dead
  }}</ref> in Italy in 1629.{{sfn|Nag|2002|p=432–}} The Spanish inventor [[Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont]] received patents in 1606  for 50 steam-powered inventions, including a water pump for draining inundated mines.<ref>{{cite book|last=Garcia|first=Nicholas|title=Mas alla de la Leyenda Negra|year=2007|publisher=Universidad de Valencia|location=Valencia|isbn=978-84-370-6791-9|pages=443–54}}</ref> By 1615, [[Salomon de Caus]] developed a solar-powered atmospheric engine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Caus |first=Salomon de (1576?-1626) Auteur du texte |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k10910177.texteImage |title=Les raisons des forces mouvantes, avec diverses machines tant utiles que plaisantes, ausquelles sont adjoints plusieurs desseins de grotes & fontaines augmentées de plusieurs figures, avec le discours sur chacune, par Salomon de Caus,... |date=1624–1724 |language=EN}}</ref> Frenchman [[Denis Papin]] did some useful work on the [[steam digester]] in 1679, and first used a piston to raise weights in 1690.{{sfn|Hills|1989|pp=15, 16, 33}}

=== Pumping engines ===
The first commercial steam-powered device was a water pump, developed in 1698 by [[Thomas Savery]].<ref name=Lira>{{cite web|last=Lira|first=Carl T.|title=The Savery Pump |work=Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics |publisher=Michigan State University|url=http://www.egr.msu.edu/~lira/supp/steam/savery.htm |access-date=11 April 2014|date=21 May 2013}}</ref> It used condensing steam to create a vacuum which raised water from below and then used steam pressure to raise it higher. Small engines were effective though larger models were problematic. They had a very limited lift height and were prone to [[boiler explosion]]s. Savery's engine was used in mines, [[pumping station]]s and supplying water to [[water wheel]]s powering textile machinery.<ref name=Hills16-20>{{Harvnb|Hills|1989|pp=16–20}}</ref> One advantage of Savery's engine was its low cost.{{sfn|Landes|1969|loc=p. 62, Note 2}}  [[Bento de Moura Portugal]] introduced an improvement of Savery's construction "to render it capable of working itself", as described by [[John Smeaton]] in the Philosophical Transactions published in 1751.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1098/rstl.1751.0073|title=LXXII. An engine for raising water by fire; being on improvement of saver'y construction, to render it capable of working itself, invented by Mr. De Moura of Portugal, F. R. S. Described by Mr. J. Smeaton|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume=47|pages=436–438|year=1752|s2cid=186208904}}</ref> It continued to be manufactured until the late 18th century.{{sfn|Landes|1969|p=}} At least one engine was still known to be operating in 1820.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Links in the History of Engineering and Technology from Tudor Times
|last=Jenkins
|first= Ryhs
|year=1971 |orig-year=First published 1936 |publisher =The Newcomen Society at the Cambridge University Press
|location= Cambridge 
|isbn= 978-0-8369-2167-0
}}. Collected Papers of Rhys Jenkins, Former Senior Examiner in the British Patent Office.</ref>

===Piston steam engines===

[[File:Jacob Leupold Steam engine 1720.jpg|thumb|right|[[Jacob Leupold]]'s steam engine, 1720]]

The first commercially successful engine that could transmit continuous power to a machine was the [[atmospheric engine]], invented by [[Thomas Newcomen]] around 1712.{{efn|Landes{{sfn|Landes|1969|p=101}} refers to Thurston's definition of an engine and Thurston's calling Newcomen's the "first true engine".}}{{sfn|Brown|2002|pp=60-}} It improved on Savery's steam pump, using a piston as proposed by Papin. Newcomen's engine was relatively inefficient, and mostly used for pumping water. It worked by creating a partial vacuum by condensing steam under a piston within a cylinder. It was employed for draining mine workings at depths originally impractical using traditional means, and for providing reusable water for driving waterwheels at factories sited away from a suitable "head". Water that passed over the wheel was pumped up into a storage reservoir above the wheel.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}}<ref>{{cite document
  | last1=Nuvolari | first1=A
  | last2=Verspagen | first2=Bart
  | last3=Tunzelmann | first3=Nicholas
  | date=2003
  | title=The Diffusion of the Steam Engine in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Applied Evolutionary Economics and the Knowledge-based Economy
  | publisher=Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies (ECIS)
  | location=Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  | page=3
}}  (Paper to be presented at 50th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International 20–22 November 2003)</ref>
In 1780 James Pickard patented the use of a flywheel and crankshaft to provide rotative motion from an improved Newcomen engine.{{sfn|Nuvolari|Verspagen|Tunzelmann|2003|p=4}}

In 1720, [[Jacob Leupold]] described a two-cylinder high-pressure steam engine.<ref>{{cite book
  |last= Galloway |first= Elajah
  |title= History of the Steam Engine
  |publisher =B. Steill, Paternoster-Row |year=1828 |location=London
  |pages=23–24
}}</ref> The invention was published in his major work "Theatri Machinarum Hydraulicarum".<ref>{{cite book
  |last= Leupold |first= Jacob
  |title= Theatri Machinarum Hydraulicarum
  |publisher= Christoph Zunkel |year=1725 |location=Leipzig
}}</ref> The engine used two heavy pistons to provide motion to a water pump. Each piston was raised by the steam pressure and returned to its original position by gravity. The two pistons shared a common four-way [[rotary valve]] connected directly to a steam boiler.

[[File:Watt steam pumping engine.JPG|thumb|Early [[Watt steam engine|Watt]] pumping engine]]
The next major step occurred when [[James Watt (inventor)|James Watt]] developed (1763–1775) [[Watt steam engine|an improved version]] of Newcomen's engine, with a [[History of the steam engine#Watt's separate condenser|separate condenser]]. [[Boulton and Watt]]'s early engines used half as much coal as [[John Smeaton]]'s improved version of Newcomen's.<ref name=HB>{{Harvnb|Hunter|Bryant|1991}} Duty comparison was based on a carefully conducted trial in 1778.</ref> Newcomen's and Watt's early engines were "atmospheric". They were powered by air pressure pushing a piston into the partial [[vacuum]] generated by [[condensation|condensing]] steam, instead of the [[pressure]] of expanding steam. The engine [[Cylinder (engine)|cylinders]] had to be large because the only usable force acting on them was [[atmospheric pressure]].{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}}<ref name="Rosen" />

Watt developed his engine further, modifying it to provide a rotary motion suitable for driving machinery. This enabled factories to be sited away from rivers, and accelerated the pace of the Industrial Revolution.<ref name="Rosen">{{cite book
|title=The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry and Invention
|last1=Rosen
|first1= William
|year= 2012
|publisher = University of Chicago Press
|isbn= 978-0-226-72634-2 |page=185
}}</ref>{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}}<ref name="Thomson 2009" />

===High-pressure engines===
The meaning of high pressure, together with an actual value above ambient, depends on the era in which the term was used. For early use of the term Van Reimsdijk<ref>"The Pictorial History of Steam Power" J.T. Van Reimsdijk and Kenneth Brown, Octopus Books Limited 1989, {{ISBN|0-7064-0976-0}}, p. 30</ref> refers to steam being at a sufficiently high pressure that it could be exhausted to atmosphere without reliance on a vacuum to enable it to perform useful work. {{harvnb|Ewing|1894|p=22}} states that Watt's condensing engines were known, at the time, as low pressure compared to high pressure, non-condensing engines of the same period.

Watt's patent prevented others from making high pressure and compound engines. Shortly after Watt's patent expired in 1800, [[Richard Trevithick]] and, separately, [[Oliver Evans]] in 1801<ref name="Thomson 2009">{{cite book |title     = Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological Invention in the United States 1790–1865
 |last      = Thomson
 |first     = Ross
 |year      = 2009
 |publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press
 |location  = Baltimore, MD
 |isbn      = 978-0-8018-9141-0
 |page      = [https://archive.org/details/structuresofchan0000thom/page/34 34]
 |url       = https://archive.org/details/structuresofchan0000thom/page/34
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
  |last=Cowan |first=Ruth Schwartz|author-link=Ruth Schwartz Cowan
  |title=A Social History of American Technology
  |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=New York
  |year=1997
  |page=74
  |isbn=978-0-19-504606-9
}}</ref> introduced engines using high-pressure steam; Trevithick obtained his high-pressure engine patent in 1802,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dickinson|first1=Henry W|last2=Titley|first2=Arthur|title=Richard Trevithick, the engineer and the man|year=1934|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|page=xvi|chapter=Chronology|oclc=637669420}}</ref> and Evans had made several working models before then.<ref>The American Car since 1775, Pub. L. Scott. Baily, 1971, p. 18</ref> These were much more powerful for a given cylinder size than previous engines and could be made small enough for transport applications. Thereafter, technological developments and improvements in manufacturing techniques (partly brought about by the adoption of the steam engine as a power source) resulted in the design of more efficient engines that could be smaller, faster, or more powerful, depending on the intended application.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}}

The [[Cornish engine]] was developed by Trevithick and others in the 1810s.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|pp=601–628}} It was a compound cycle engine that used high-pressure steam expansively, then condensed the low-pressure steam, making it relatively efficient. The Cornish engine had irregular motion and torque through the cycle, limiting it mainly to pumping. Cornish engines were used in mines and for water supply until the late 19th century.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=601}}

=== Horizontal stationary engine ===
{{Main|Stationary steam engine}}

Early builders of stationary steam engines considered that horizontal cylinders would be subject to excessive wear. Their engines were therefore arranged with the piston axis in vertical position. In time the horizontal arrangement became more popular, allowing compact, but powerful engines to be fitted in smaller spaces.

The acme of the horizontal engine was the [[Corliss steam engine]], patented in 1849, which was a four-valve counter flow engine with separate steam admission and exhaust valves and automatic variable steam cutoff. When Corliss was given the [[Rumford Medal]], the committee said that "no one invention since Watt's time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam engine".<ref name="NE Manufacturers 1879">{{cite book
  |title=New England Manufacturers and Manufactories
  |author=Van Slyck, J.D.
  |others=volume 1
  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wAs4AQAAMAAJ
  |year=1879
  |publisher=Van Slyck
  |page=198}}</ref> In addition to using 30% less steam, it provided more uniform speed due to variable steam cut off, making it well suited to manufacturing, especially cotton spinning.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}}<ref name="Thomson 2009" />

=== Road vehicles ===
[[File:Steam powered road-locomotive from England.png|thumb|Steam powered road-locomotive from England]]
{{Main|History of steam road vehicles}}
The first experimental road-going steam-powered vehicles were built in the late 18th century, but it was not until after [[Richard Trevithick]] had developed the use of high-pressure steam, around 1800, that mobile steam engines became a practical proposition. The first half of the 19th century saw great progress in steam vehicle design, and by the 1850s it was becoming viable to produce them on a commercial basis. This progress was dampened by legislation which limited or prohibited the use of steam-powered vehicles on roads. Improvements in vehicle technology continued from the 1860s to the 1920s. Steam road vehicles were used for many applications. In the 20th century, the rapid development of [[internal combustion engine]] technology led to the demise of the steam engine as a source of propulsion of vehicles on a commercial basis, with relatively few remaining in use beyond the [[Second World War]]. Many of these vehicles were acquired by enthusiasts for preservation, and numerous examples are still in existence. In the 1960s, the air pollution problems in California gave rise to a brief period of interest in developing and studying steam-powered vehicles as a possible means of reducing the pollution. Apart from interest by steam enthusiasts, the occasional replica vehicle, and experimental technology, no steam vehicles are in production at present.

=== Marine engines ===

[[File:Triple expansion marine steam engine.jpg|thumb|right|A triple-expansion [[marine steam engine]] on the 1907 oceangoing tug [[Hercules (1907)|''Hercules'']]]]

{{Main|Marine steam engine}}

Near the end of the 19th century, compound engines came into widespread use. [[Compound steam engine|Compound engines]] exhausted steam into successively larger cylinders to accommodate the higher volumes at reduced pressures, giving improved efficiency. These stages were called expansions, with double- and triple-expansion engines being common, especially in shipping where efficiency was important to reduce the weight of coal carried.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}} Steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th century, when advances in the design of the [[steam turbine]], [[electric motor]]s, and [[internal combustion engine]]s gradually resulted in the replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines, with merchant shipping relying increasingly upon [[diesel engine]]s, and warships on the steam turbine.{{sfn|Hunter|1985|p=}}<ref Name="Wiser"/>

=== Steam locomotives ===
{{Main|Steam locomotive|Traction engine|Steam tractor}}

As the development of steam engines progressed through the 18th century, various attempts were made to apply them to road and railway use.{{sfn|Payton|2004}}<!--Cugnot is probably ''not'' relevant here. However it is very likely that Murdoch influenced Trevithick.--> In 1784, [[William Murdoch]], a [[Scotland|Scottish]] inventor, built a model steam road locomotive.<ref>{{cite book
  | last =Gordon
  | first =W.J.
  | title =Our Home Railways, volume one
  | publisher =Frederick Warne and Co
  | year =1910
  | location =London
  | pages =7–9
  }}</ref> An early working model of a steam rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer [[John Fitch (inventor)|John Fitch]] in the United States probably during the 1780s or 1790s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/steamtown/shs2.htm |title=Nation Park Service Steam Locomotive article with photo of Fitch Steam model and dates of construction as 1780–1790 |publisher=Nps.gov |date=2002-02-14 |access-date=2009-11-03}}</ref>
His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels {{clarify|date=August 2020}} guided by rails or tracks.
[[File:Union Pacific 844, Painted Rocks, NV, 2009 (crop).jpg|thumb|[[Union Pacific 844]], an "[[Union Pacific FEF series|FEF-3]]" [[4-8-4]] "Northern" type steam locomotive]]
The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by [[Richard Trevithick]] in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] and, on 21 February 1804, the world's first railway journey took place as Trevithick's  steam locomotive hauled 10 tones of iron, 70 passengers and five wagons along the [[Rail transport|tramway]] from the [[Penydarren|Pen-y-darren]] ironworks, near [[Merthyr Tydfil]] to [[Abercynon]] in south [[Wales]].{{sfn|Payton|2004}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/trevithic_loco/ |title=Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive &#124; Rhagor |publisher=Museumwales.ac.uk |access-date=2009-11-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415125004/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/trevithic_loco |archive-date=15 April 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title       = Steam train anniversary begins
| url         = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3509961.stm
| publisher   = [[BBC]]
| access-date  = 2009-06-13
| quote       = A south Wales town has begun months of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the invention of the steam locomotive. Merthyr Tydfil was the location where, on 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick took the world into the railway age when he set one of his high-pressure steam engines on a local iron master's tram rails
| date=2004-02-21}}</ref> The design incorporated a number of important innovations that included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine and increased its efficiency. Trevithick visited the Newcastle area later in 1804 and the [[Industrial railway|colliery railways]] in north-east England became the leading centre for experimentation and development of steam locomotives.<ref name="Garnett, 2005">{{cite book |last=Garnett |first=A.F. |title=Steel Wheels |publisher=Cannwood Press |year=2005| pages=18–19}}</ref>

Trevithick continued his own experiments using a trio of locomotives, concluding with the [[Catch Me Who Can]] in 1808. Only four years later, the successful twin-cylinder locomotive ''[[The Salamanca|Salamanca]]'' by [[Matthew Murray]] was used by the [[Wagonway#Edgeway, edge rails|edge railed]] [[rack and pinion]] [[Middleton Railway]].<ref name="Young,1923">{{cite book
  |last=Young |first=Robert
  |title=Timothy Hackworth and the Locomotive 
  |publisher=the Book Guild Ltd
  |location=Lewes, UK
  |year=2000
  |edition=reprint of 1923
}}</ref> In 1825 [[George Stephenson]] built the ''[[Locomotion No 1|Locomotion]]'' for the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]]. This was the first public steam railway in the world and then in 1829, he built ''[[Stephenson's Rocket|The Rocket]]'' which was entered in and won the [[Rainhill Trials]].<ref name="Ellis,1968">{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |author=Hamilton Ellis |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968 |pages=24–30}}</ref> The [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]] opened in 1830 making exclusive use of steam power for both passenger and freight trains.

Steam locomotives continued to be manufactured until the late twentieth century in places such as [[List of locomotives in China|China]] and the former [[East Germany]] (where the [[DR Class 52.80]] was produced).<ref>Michael Reimer, Dirk Endisch: ''Baureihe 52.80 – Die rekonstruierte Kriegslokomotive'', GeraMond, {{ISBN|3-7654-7101-1}}</ref>

=== Steam turbines ===
{{Main|Steam turbine}}

The final major evolution of the steam engine design was the use of steam [[turbine]]s starting in the late part of the 19th century. Steam turbines are generally more efficient than reciprocating piston type steam engines (for outputs above several hundred horsepower), have fewer moving parts, and provide rotary power directly instead of through a [[connecting rod]] system or similar means.<ref name=smil>{{Citation|page= 62| title=Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact|author= Vaclav Smil|isbn= 978-0-19-516874-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w3Mh7qQRM-IC&q=Transformer+coltman+1988&pg=PA71|access-date=2009-01-03|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Steam turbines virtually replaced reciprocating engines in electricity generating stations early in the 20th century, where their efficiency, higher speed appropriate to generator service, and smooth rotation were advantages. Today most [[electric power]] is provided by steam turbines. In the United States, 90% of the electric power is produced in this way using a variety of heat sources.<ref name="Wiser">{{cite book|title=Energy resources: occurrence, production, conversion, use|last= Wiser |first= Wendell H.|year= 2000|publisher= Birkhäuser|isbn= 978-0-387-98744-6|page= 190|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UmMx9ixu90kC&dq=steam&pg=PA190}}</ref> Steam turbines were extensively applied for propulsion of large ships throughout most of the 20th century.

=== Present development ===
{{Main|Advanced steam technology}}

Although the reciprocating steam engine is no longer in widespread commercial use, various companies are exploring or exploiting the potential of the engine as an alternative to internal combustion engines.

The world's smallest working "steam engine" was revealed in 2011. The micro-scale engine was developed by two German scientists at the [[University of Stuttgart]]. It operates on the principle of a [[Stirling engine]].<ref>{{cite news |title=World's 'smallest steam engine' built in Germany |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-16147965 |access-date=24 May 2025 |work=BBC News |date=12 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Noack |first1=Rick |title=Scientists develop world’s smallest steam engine |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/13/world/europe/germany-smallest-steam-engine/index.html |access-date=24 May 2025 |work=CNN |date=13 December 2011 |language=en}}</ref>