History of the invention of steam engines

The history of the invention of steam engines says,that for the first time they were built by T. Severi, D. Papen, T. Newkenom, I. Polzunov. Their cars had different designs, but they had something in common - the movement of the piston was carried out by alternately heating and cooling the acting cylinder. This technology did not contribute to the rapid operation of machines, and fuel consumption exceeded reasonable limits. But let's start from the beginning and tell everything in order.

People used water in the productionengines until the second half of the XVIII century. But since at that time it was not possible to transfer the force of the mechanical movements of the water wheels over considerable distances, the factories in need of this were built on the shores of the reservoirs. This was not always convenient, and besides, the efficiency of such engines was provided by expensive preparatory processes. Also their capacity was low, and work was carried out depending on the time of year and was difficult to control. Then there was a sharp need for a completely new device with power, inexpensive to operate, easy to manage and autonomous. The invention of the steam engine overnight solved all these issues.

The history of the invention of steam engines is rootedfar into the past. Even in antiquity, a piston water pump was designed, the technology of which was the basis for the idea of ​​a steam engine. In the XVII - XVIII centuries, mankind found a way of producing mechanical energy with the help of steam, inventing a steam pump feeding water into a special reservoir from which it got on the wheel, driving it. It made production machines and mechanisms work. So it turns out that the water wheel still acted as an engine. It took a long time to create a reliable steam engine - more than two centuries.

In 1698, the military engineer Thomas Saveryinvented steam-based technology for pumping water and draining mines, but the history of the invention of steam engines did not end there. Denis Papen in 1674 for the first time managed to build a successful steam engine. At first he tried to use a powder engine, but this experiment did not have much success. Then the idea came to him to replace gunpowder with water. Its steam engine was published in 1698 (the same time when the invention of Saveri). The principle of operation consisted in heating the water until the formation of steam inside a vertically fixed cylinder, in which the piston moved, which was pushed upward. Then the steam was cooled and condensed, and the piston was lowered under the influence of atmospheric pressure. This technology set in motion different mechanisms.

Having read the construction of Papen, who workeda blacksmith in the West Country mines and who understood the importance of inventing good shaft pumps, Thomas Newcomen joined forces with John Cully, the glazier and plumber, and together they set about improving the model. Their first car was installed in Staffordshire at the mine for coal mining in 1712. This technology turned out to be so successful that it was used in the whole of Europe for more than 50 years.

In 1775 the history of the invention of steam enginesreplenished with a new discovery - John Smeaton created a new improved model that drained the Kronstadt dock in just two weeks. Before that, it took a year to do this work.

II Polzunov, an inventor-mechanic from Russia, in the spring of 1763 developed a design for a steam engine that could for the first time operate any machinery and soon received recognition.

It should be said that there is one more inventorsteam engine - James Watt. He perfected Newcomen's car from 1763 and, finally, patented his offspring in 1768. Despite this, he for a long time could not build a car for his project, but in 1776 it was ready and successfully passed the test. Its efficiency was twice as high as that of the Newcomen device. The first universal double-acting steam engine was created by James Watt in 1782. Since Watt's engine could be used on any machine, the creators of the self-propelled mechanisms took advantage of this idea without delay.

The history of steam engines is captured in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, where one of Watt's first inventions stands.