Taming steam power

This post is about a completely different subject than what we normally write. You see, neither me nor ec892894 and sc3439 know much about engineering but we attempted to write a post to honor Thomas Newcomen and his engine that contributed significantly to the industrial progress of the last 300 years. 

300 years ago the first steam engine was installed at a coalmine at Dudley Castle in Staffordshire, UK.

  

The engine could pump 45 liters of water a minute from a depth of 50 meters and, by pumping away dangerous levels of water, enabled mining at greater depths and made coal cheaper and more available. This invention kick-started the industrial revolution in Britain.

 At the late seventeenth century the standard methods to remove the water from the mines was manual pumping or horses hauling buckets on a rope. At the same time, several people were experimenting with steam power and vacuums. In the late 1670s, the French Denis Papin invented a “steam digester”, an early form of pressure cooker. Twenty years later, he built a model of the first steam piston engine. Meanwhile, English military engineer Thomas Savery invented a primitive form of steam engine for pumping water. However, it presented a lot of problems and could draw water only from 9 meters deep.

Thomas Newcomen, an English blacksmith from Dartmouth, was influenced by both inventors and, with his partner John Calley, started experimenting on building an effective steam engine for raising water from deep mines.

He devised a model of an atmospheric engine, which employed both low-pressure steam and atmospheric pressure. In his system, a boiler produced steam which drove a piston upward. A valve then sealed the piston chamber from the boiler and cold water was pumped into the piston chamber that condensed the steam, dropped the pressure and pulled the piston back down. The vertical motion of the piston moved a beam which pivoted on a central fulcrum, with the other side of the beam being attached to a chain that went down into the mine to the water pump.The beam was heavier on the main pump side with gravity pulling down that side of the beam. Once the piston was pulled down, the valve was reopened and the process repeated. It was the first practical engine to use a piston in a cylinder. A very good animation of Newman's engine can be found here.

Diagram of a Newcomen's engine. The picture was taken from www.wikipedia.com

Thomas Newcomen died on August 5, 1729, in London. However, Newcomen's engine was used to drain mines for many years. It was later modified, around 1769, by James Watt, a Scottish inventor and engineer, who created a steam condenser that increased the efficiency of the engine. Despite Watt's improvements, Common Engines (as they were called) remained in use for a considerable time. Finally, the Watt engine almost entirely replaced the Newcomen engine by 1790.

In July, several events are being organised in Devon to celebrate the 300 anniversary of the first steam engine.