The History of the Steam Engine: The Machine That Destroyed Its Inventor

Comments · 7

• WA

  @Walter-w9v · 4 days ago

  There&apos;s a 1788 Watt engine in a museum in Munchen Germany.<br>It ran at 22psi and was described as being extremely high pressure for it&apos;s time.

• CR

  @craxd1 · 4 days ago

  Before the mid-1800s, there weren&apos;t any scientific studies or formulas for thermodynamics, pressure vessels, boilers, and cylinders, and it took until the late 19th and early 20th centuries before standardized mathematical formulas for safety, plate thickness, and stress limits were introduced. The ASME Boiler Code Committee was formed in 1911 to establish universally accepted calculation formulas for pressure vessel safety and design.<br><br>Britain established universally accepted calculation formulas and rules for pressure vessels in 1949 with the publication of BS 1500 by the British Standards Institution (BSI).<br><br>Early boilermakers relied on basic proportions, historical precedent, and trial-and-error prototyping. Inventions like Richard Trevithick’s high-pressure Cornish boiler (1812) forced engineers to start estimating wall thickness and working pressures using rudimentary stress concepts, though calculations were heavily supplemented by safety margins and physical testing.

  1

• WA

  @Walter-w9v · 4 days ago

  Bloomfield Colliery <br>Near Dudley <br>1776: &apos; Birmingham, March 11th. On Friday last a Steam Engine constructed upon Mr Watt&apos;s new principles, was set to work at Bloomfield Colliery, Dudley. From the first moment of it&apos;s setting to work it made about 14 or 15 strokes per minute, and emptied the engine pit (which is about 90 feet deep, and stood 57 feet high in water) in less than an hour. This engine is applied to the working of a pump 14 inches and a half diameter, which is capable of doing to the depth 300 feet, or even 360 if wanted, with one fourth of the fuel that a common engine would require to produce the fame quantity of power. The cylinder is 50 inches diameter, and the lenth of the stroke is seven feet. These engines are not worked by the pressure of the atmosphere. Their principles are very different from all others.

• WA

  @Walter-w9v · 4 days ago

  A seperate condenser was no use Wattsoever to a Newcomen Atmospheric Pump. It only works &nbsp;for Steam Pumps and Steam Engines which have Atmospheric Resistance. Watt created a &quot;closed loop&quot; Steam System between the engine and the condenser which eliminated 14.7psi of Atmospheric resistance. Which also meant he could make use of High Pressure Steam way below ambient Atmospheric Pressure. The first person ever to do so. For example a 5psi abs. High Pressure Steam Pump or Engine with a condenser, could do as much work as a 20psi abs. High Pressure Steam Pump or Engine without a condenser, but only needed 1/4 the amount of fuel. A 400% increase in fuel efficiency! . Newcomen = Atmospheric Power. Watt = &nbsp;High Pressure Steam Power. Also, James Watt&apos;s 5psi absolute Engine had 10psi Pressure on his boiler, the same Pressure Richard &nbsp;Trevithick&apos;s 25psi absolute boiler had. So boiler technology was similar. By year 1900, out of 10,000,000 Steam Engines, only 25,000 were Locomotives.

• WA

  @Walter-w9v · 4 days ago

  James Watt INVENTED the first PRACTICAL High Pressure Steam Powered Engine. <br>Not Richard Trevithick.<br> All Steam Engines use high pressure Steam, Steam is always the High Pressure side of the piston, no matter if it&apos;s 2psi absolute or 200psi absolute, they&apos;re all Steam Engines. Naturally the first ones had lower Steam Pressures than later ones, (Watt had just INVENTED them !!). <br>You could walk faster than Trevithick&apos;s Locomotives. Watt&apos;s Engines with their &quot;Low&quot; High Pressure Steam sold like hot-cakes, Trevithick&apos;s Locomotives with their &quot;High&quot; High Pressure Steam couldn&apos;t sell. Also, the boiler pressure on Watt&apos;s 5psi absolute Engine was 10psi. The same as on Trevithick&apos;s 25psi absolute Engine. So, boiler technology must have been similar.

• ME

  @MettleUK · 2 days ago

  The stories we tell here, written down properly. Read the first chapter free — no cost, no card: <a href="https://mettlehistory.co.uk/">https://mettlehistory.co.uk</a>

• WA

  @Walter-w9v · 4 days ago

  ATMOSPHERIC POWER. <br>After work done by Geronimo, Somerset, Calley, Savery, and Newcomen we finally ended up with an Atmospheric Pump. <br>And there it stayed for the next (yawn!) 70 years. The great English civil engineer John Smeaton increased it&apos;s efficiency by 25%, (supposedly). His supporters thought nobody could build a better Pump. <br>STEAM POWER.<br> He was in direct competition with Watt (he even managed to sabotage one of Watt&apos;s new engines). But he still lost out to James Watt&apos;s newly Invented High Pressure Steam Powered Pump, (bye bye Newcomen&apos;s Atmospheric Pump), soon to become newly invented High Pressure Steam Powered Engine. (bye bye Arkwright&apos;s Waterwheels, hello Industrial Revolution!!). <br>The world&apos;s first PRACTICAL High Pressure Steam Powered Engine, which by the way WAS the Industrial Revolution. <br>From 20,000 Waterwheels and Windmills in the year 1800 to 10,000,000 High Pressure Steam Powered Engines in the year 1900, (of which, only 25,000 were Locomotives). <br>For every SINGLE Waterwheel and Windmill in the year 1800 we now had 500 High Pressure Steam Powered Engines in the year 1900!!! <br>From 20,000 sources of Power to 10,000,000 better sources of Power. <br>A LIMITED number of Waterwheels and Windmills being joined by an UNLIMITED number of High Pressure Steam Engines. An Industrial Revolution!