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Published in:
2022 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
3. The Steam Age—Evolution of Steam Engines and the 1st Steam Locomotive
Author : John Bailey
Published in: Inventive Geniuses Who Changed the World
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
Britons were world pioneers of the Steam Age. Thomas Savery built the first operational steam pump with no moving parts. Thomas Newcomen designed an atmospheric steam pump. James Watt was proposed by some commentators to be the “Father of the Industrial Revolution” because he designed super-efficient beam, rotary, and double acting steam engines for a host of emerging industries. Richard Trevithick built high pressure steam engines in both stationary and mobile formats, one of the latter becoming the first steam locomotive to operate on cast iron rails. His prototype was the progenitor of railway engines. Robert Stephenson designed and built the Rocket steam locomotive which became the template for steam locomotives across the world for the next century.
By the late seventeenth century, a national shortage of wood had created a demand for coal as a substitute fuel. Whilst Britain possessed huge reserves of coal, some of its extraction required deep mining techniques. However, the curse of coal mines was their tendency to fill with water. Likewise, the flooding of copper and tin mines, particularly in Cornwall, was of great concern. Two Devonshire men—Savery and Newcomen—used their engineering skills to build static steam engines that could be used to pump out unwanted water from mines.
The application of steam pumps in coal mines led to a colossal expansion of the coal industry, at relatively low cost, because the coal fines that were usually waste material could be used to generate steam.
The invention of the steam engine was crucial to the industrialization of modern civilisation. Before them, we relied on power generated by wind, water, humans, and animals. Steam engines rank amongst the greatest inventions of all times. Their artificial source of power facilitated the exploitation of our mineral wealth.
They relied on the burning of coal to produce heat to vaporise water into steam. The subsequent condensation of steam in a confined space created a vacuum which facilitated either a siphoning process or the movement of a piston.
The steam engine was a complex invention that underwent a process of incremental development which, over the years, incorporated many important innovations. These resulted from an increased understanding of ‘atmospheric pressure’ and the nature of ‘vacuum’, as well as novel engineering improvements.
Later, steam engines were used to hoist coal and mining machinery leading to an abundant supply of low-cost coal. At the time, long-distance freight was carried by road or canal. The fastest way to move people between urban centres was by horseback. Engineers and industrialist would use steam engines to power trains, steamboats and various machines present in manufacturing sites across the industrial world. The steam engine, in various formats was one of the most successful inventions of all times.
As they got smaller, steam engines could be set up wherever mechanical power was needed. They powered Great Britain to prominence as the first industrialized nation in the World. Britain then emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the world.
Over a period of 131 years, between 1698 and 1829, six British engineers and entrepreneurs were largely responsible for the development of the steam engines and steam locomotives that contributed so significantly to the first Industrial Revolution. These great British men were Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, Richard Trevithick, George, and Robert Stephenson.
During this period of advancement, several excellent, British background scientists were working in related fields. These include Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Black (theory of latent heat {‘hidden’ heat and energy in steam}) and James Joule who determined the exact rate of exchange at which mechanical work is converted to heat.
However, the inventions that these six engineers assembled appear to have been stimulated, not by the application of scientific knowledge and theories, but by their familiarity with on-site technical operations, their ingenuity, personal engineering skills, practical expertise, craftsmanship, repeated improvement trials, as well as a stroke of luck. Learning resulted from attempting new things.