98: The Steam Engine

98: The Steam Engine

This whole list cannot be complete without this little gem! If you haven’t noticed thus far, the first three inventions are the reason for manufacturing and industrialization. The steam engine really moved things. I am a champion of the steam engine. I love the way they sound, the way they smell, and the awesome power that it can supply. If the zombie apocalypse happens, the steam engine will come back, I am sure of it.

Thomas Savery's
Steam Engine

The fundamental idea of the steam engine is just brilliance. Take a boiler, take its steam, push a piston, and there you have it, complete power to move many machines at once.

Thomas Newcomen's
Atmospheric Pressure engine

Invented by and improved by three different inventors, the steam engine was used to pump water out of English coal mines. In 1698, Thomas Savery, applied for the first patent on the first crude steam engine. It was built to pump water out of the mines. It worked well for a while to a guy come along made more adjustments to it. Thomas Newcomen developed an engine (1712) that used atmospheric pressure to move the piston. Unlike in the Savery engine, Newcomen’s engine cylinder was cooled by cold water, which allowed the temperature to drop and move the cylinder to create a vacuum, which could pump water out of a mine faster than the Savery engine. The third and final man to make even more improvements of the steam engine is our very own James Watt. In 1769, Watt moved the condenser from the cylinder, which was then cooled at the same time that the cylinder was hot. This simple addition to the steam engine made his design the most used to this date in history. By the way, when looking at the output power of Watts (W), think of this guy. He was so awesome and understood power so well; he has his own unit of measure named after him.

James Watt's Steam Engine

The improvements James Watt made was then harnessed, literally, to pullys and belts that ran the course of a mill that then moved many machines, preforming the different jobs at the same time, causing the mills of those days to move from water wheels to steam engines. The steam engine had a marvelous advantage to the water wheel. The steam engine did not have a dependence on a waterway, which then made it possible to build factories and mills anywhere. Once the steam engine was connected to a railway, the train was born.

Welcome, to number 98, James Watt, you made my list. 

Demo Model of Thomas Savery's Steam Engine
Demo of Full Scale Model of Thomas Newcomen Steam Engine
Demo of James Watt's Steam Engine