Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Steam engine
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== 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=16β20}}</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=436β438|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>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)