Steam power developed slowly over a period of several hundred years, progressing through expensive and fairly limited devices in the early 17th century, to useful pumps for mining in 1700, and then to Watt's improved steam engine designs in the late 18th century. It is these later designs, introduced just when the need for practical power was growing due to the Industrial Revolution, that truly made steam power commonplace.
Development phases
Early examples Circa 30-20 BC – Vitruvius provides the earliest known description of an aeolipile in his work de Architectura, noting hollow bronze vessels that, when water within boils, emit a “violent wind”. 1st century AD – Hero of Alexandria describes an aeolipile, as an example of the power of heated air or water. The device consists of a rotating ball spun by steam jets; it produced little power but is nevertheless the first known device moved by steam pressure. He also describes a way of transferring water from one vessel to another using pressure. The methods involved filling a bucket, the weight of which worked tackle to open temple doors, which were then closed again by a deadweight once the water in the bucket had been drawn out by a vacuum caused by cooling of the initial vessel. 1125 (1125): In Reims, according to William of Malmesbury, an organ was powered by heated water. He claims it was built by Pope Sylvester II. Late 15th century AD: Leonardo Da Vinci described the Architonnerre, a steam-powered cannon. 1551 (1551): Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf describes a steam turbine-like device for rotating a spit. 1601 (1601): Giovanni Battista della Porta performs experiments on using steam to create pressure or a vacuum, building simple fountains similar to a percolator. 1606 (1606): Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont receives a patent for a steam-powered device for pumping water out of mines. 1615 (1615): Salomon de Caus, who had been an engineer and architect under Louis XIII, publishes a book showing a device similar to that of Porta. 1629 (1629): Giovanni Branca suggests using a steam turbine device similar to that described by Taqi al-Din but intended to be used to power a series of pestles working in mortars. 1630 (1630): David Ramsay is granted a patent for various steam applications, although no description is given and the patent also covers a number of unrelated inventions. He refers to a "fire engine", and this term is used for many years.
Development of a practical steam engine 1663 (1663): Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquis of Worcester, publishes a selection of his inventions. One is a new sort of steam pump, essentially two devices like de Caus', but attached to a single boiler. A key invention is the addition of cooling around the containers to force the steam to condense. This produces a partial vacuum inside the chambers, which is used to draw a volume of water into the containers through a pipe, thus forming a pump. He builds one of very large size into the side of Raglan Castle, apparently the first "industrial scale" steam engine. He has plans to build them for mining, but dies before he can set up his company. 1680 (1680): Christiaan Huygens publishes memoirs describing a gunpowder engine that drives a piston. It is historically notable as the first known description of a piston engine. 1698 (1698): Thomas Savery introduces a steam pump he calls the Miner's Friend. It is almost certainly a direct copy of Somerset's design. One key improvement is added later, replacing the cold water flow on the outside of the cylinder with a spray directly inside it. A small number of his pumps are built, mostly experimental in nature, but like any system based on suction to lift the water, they have a maximum height of 32 feet (and typically much less). In order to be practical, his design can also use the pressure of additional steam to force the water out the top of the cylinder, allowing the pumps to be "stacked", but many mine owners were afraid of the high risk of explosion and avoided this option. (Savery engines were re-introduced in the 1780s to recirculate water to water wheels driving textile mills, especially in periods of drought). c. 1705 (1705): Thomas Newcomen develops the atmospheric engine, which, unlike the Savery pump, employs a piston in a cylinder; the vacuum pulling the piston down to the bottom of the cylinder when water is injected into it. The engine enabled a great increase in pumping height and the draining of deeper mines than possible when using vacuum to pull the water up. Savery holds a patent covering all imagined uses of steam power, so Newcomen and his partner John Calley persuade Savery to join forces with them to exploit their invention until the expiration of the patent in 1733. 1707 (1707): The French inventor Denis Papin publishes a study on steam power, including a number of ideas. One uses a Savery-like engine to lift water onto a water wheel for rotary power. The study also proposes replacing the water of a Savery engine with a piston, which is pulled on by the vacuum in a cylinder after steam inside is condensed, but he was unable to build the device. 1718 (1718): Jean Desaguliers introduces an improved version of the Savery engine, which includes safety valves and a two-way valve that operated both the steam and cold water (as opposed to two separate valves). It is not commercially employed.
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