Editing Newcomen atmospheric engine (section)

==Introduction and spread==
[[File:US-Colonial (NY-173)-New York-2 Aug 1775 REV.jpg|thumb|right|Newcomen engine as depicted on a 2/- note of the [[Province of New York]], 1775]]
Newcomen took forward Papin's experiment and made it workable, although little information exists as to exactly how this came about. The main problem to which Papin had given no solution was how to make the action repeatable at regular intervals. The way forward was to provide, as Savery had, a boiler capable of ensuring the continuity of the supply of steam to the cylinder, providing the vacuum power stroke by condensing the steam, and disposing of the water once it had been condensed. The power piston was hung by chains from the end of a rocking beam. Unlike Savery's device, pumping was entirely mechanical, the work of the steam engine being to lift a weighted rod slung from the opposite extremity of the rocking beam. The rod descended the mine shaft by gravity and drove a force pump, or pole pump (or most often a gang of two) inside the mineshaft. The suction stroke of the pump was only for the length of the upward (priming) stroke, there consequently was no longer the 30-foot restriction of a vacuum pump and water could be forced up a column from far greater depths. The boiler supplied the steam at extremely low pressure and was at first located immediately beneath the power cylinder but could also be placed behind a separating wall with a connecting steam pipe. Making all this work needed the skill of a practical engineer; Newcomen's trade as an "ironmonger" or metal merchant would have given him significant practical knowledge of what materials would be suitable for such an engine and brought him into contact with people having even more detailed knowledge.

The earliest examples for which reliable records exist were two engines in the [[Black Country]], of which the more famous was that erected in 1712 at the Conygree Coalworks in Bloomfield Road [[Tipton]] now the site of "The [[Angle Ring]] Company Limited", [[Tipton]].<ref>{{Cite journal
  |first1=J.H.  |last1=Andrew
  |first2=J.S.  |last2=Allen
  |title=A confirmation of the location of the 1712 "Dudley Castle" Newcomen engine at Coneygree, Tipton
  |journal=[[International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology]]
  |volume=72  |issue=2
  |year=2009
  |pages=174–182
  |publisher=Taylor & Francis
  |doi=10.1179/175812109X449603
|s2cid=111316313
 }}</ref> This is generally accepted as the first successful Newcomen engine and followed by one built a mile and a half east of [[Wolverhampton]]. Both these were used by Newcomen and his partner [[John Calley (engineer)|John Calley]] to pump out water-filled coal mines. A working replica can today be seen at the nearby [[Black Country Living Museum]], which stands on another part of what was [[Edward Ward, 9th Baron Dudley|Lord Dudley]]'s Conygree Park.
Another Newcomen engine was in [[Cornwall]]. Its location is uncertain, but it is known that one was in operation at [[Wheal Vor]] mine in 1715.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Earl
|first=Bryan
|title=Cornish Mining: The Techniques of Metal Mining in the West of England, Past and Present
|publisher=Cornish Hillside Publications
|location=St Austell
|edition=2nd
|year=1994
|page=38
|isbn=0-9519419-3-3}}</ref>
Soon orders from wet mines all over England were coming in, and some have suggested that word of his achievement was spread through his [[Baptist]] connections. Since Savery's patent had not yet run out, Newcomen was forced to come to an arrangement with Savery and operate under the latter's patent, as its term was much longer than any Newcomen could have easily obtained. During the latter years of its currency, the patent belonged to an unincorporated company, ''The Proprietors of the Invention for raising water by fire''.

Although its first use was in coal-mining areas, Newcomen's engine was also used for pumping water out of the metal mines in his native West Country, such as the tin mines of Cornwall. By the time of his death, Newcomen and others had installed over a hundred of his engines, not only in the West Country and the Midlands but also in north Wales, near Newcastle and in Cumbria. Small numbers were built in other European countries, including in France, Belgium, Spain, and Hungary, also at [[Dannemora, Sweden]]. Evidence of the use of a Newcomen Steam Engine associated with early coal mines was found in 2010 in [[Midlothian, VA]] (site of some of the first coal mines in the US).
(Dutton and Associates survey dated 24 November 2009).
[[File:Newcomen6325.png|thumb|right|Diagram of the Newcomen steam engine]]