Editing Newcomen atmospheric engine (section)

==Development and application==
[[File:PSM V12 D142 Newcomen engine as improved by smeaton 1775.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Pencil sketch of Newcomen steam engine as improved by [[John Smeaton|Smeaton]], from ''[[Popular Science]]'' monthly circa 1877]]
Towards the close of its career, the atmospheric engine was much improved in its mechanical details and its proportions by [[John Smeaton]], who built many large engines of this type during the 1770s.<ref name=EB1911/> The urgent need for an engine to give rotary motion was making itself felt and this was done with limited success by Wasborough and [[James Pickard|Pickard]] using a Newcomen engine to drive a flywheel through a [[Crank (mechanism)|crank]]. Although the principle of the crank had long been known, [[James Pickard|Pickard]] managed to obtain a 12-year patent in 1780 for the specific application of the crank to steam engines; this was a setback to Boulton and Watt who bypassed the patent by applying the [[sun and planet gear|sun and planet]] motion to their advanced double-acting rotative engine of 1782.

By 1725 the Newcomen engine was in common use in mining, particularly [[coal mining|collieries]].  It held its place with little material change for the rest of the century.  Use of the Newcomen engine was extended in some places to pump municipal water supply; for instance the first Newcomen engine in France was built at [[Passy]] in 1726 to pump water from the Seine to the city of Paris.<ref>{{cite book
| last=Rolt
| first=L. T. C.
| author-link=L. T. C. Rolt
| title=Thomas Newcomen – The Prehistory of the Steam Engine
| publisher=David & Charles
| year=1963
| location=Dawlish
| page=86
}}</ref> It was also used to power machinery indirectly, by returning water from below a [[water wheel]] to a reservoir above it, so that the same water could again turn the wheel.  Among the earliest examples of this was at [[Coalbrookdale]].  A horse-powered pump had been installed in 1735 to return water to the pool above the Old Blast Furnace.  This was replaced by a Newcomen engine in 1742–3.<ref name="Belford, 2007" >{{Cite journal
  |url=http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/uploadedfiles/belford2007iar.pdf
  |first=P.  |last=Belford
  |title=Sublime cascades: Water and Power in Coalbrookdale
  |journal=Industrial Archaeology Review
  |volume=29
  |issue=2
  |year=2007
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222223831/http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/uploadedfiles/belford2007iar.pdf
  |archive-date=22 February 2012
  |page=136
  |doi=10.1179/174581907x234027
|s2cid=110369508 }}</ref> Several new furnaces built in Shropshire in the 1750s were powered in a similar way, including [[Horsehay]] and [[Ketley]] Furnaces and [[Madeley Wood Company|Madeley Wood or Bedlam Furnaces]].<ref>B. Trinder, ''Industrial Revolution in Shropshire'' (3rd edn, Phillimore, Chichester, 2000), 48.</ref> The latter does not seem to have had a pool above the furnace, merely a tank into which the water was pumped.  In other industries, engine-pumping was less common, but [[Richard Arkwright]] used an engine to provide additional power for his [[cotton mill]].<ref>{{Cite book
  |last=Hills  |first=Richard L.
  |author-link=Richard L. Hills
  |title=Power in the Industrial revolution
  |publisher=Manchester University Press
  |year=1970
  |isbn=0719003776
  |pages=134–135
}}</ref>

Attempts were made to drive machinery by Newcomen engines, but these were unsuccessful, as the single power stroke produced a very jerky motion.{{Citation needed|date=February 2018|reason=No citation: attempts were made to drive machinery...}}