The Steam Engine

The earliest recorded steam engine was the Aeolipile, made in 1st century AD by Greek inventor and engineer Hero of Alexandria. Hero probably did not expect his invention to inspire a leap in technological advancement a millennium later.

It is a very rudimentary design with no known practical purpose but to be a “temple wonder” or decoration. It consists of a ball rotated by steam jets, powered by boiling water beneath. 

Named after the Greek God of wind, Aeolus, the Aeolipile was a relatively simple invention. It consists of a rotating ball, with the rotation made possible by steam jets powered by boiling water underneath the ball. 

A famous engineer in his time and beyond, Hero was also the inventor of the Aeolipile. His other inventions include the vending machine and the windwheel — 1 of the first tools for harnessing wind on land. 

More than a millennium since the Aeolipile, numerous inventors experimented with the idea of using steam as a power source. 

Milestones were reached by Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen who, in a few decades apart, utilized steam power for practical use and added further applications for it. 

British inventor Thomas Savery, patented his rudimentary steam machine in 1698. It had no pistons or moving parts as Savery intended the engine to be used to raise water out of wells using the partial vacuum created by introducing steam and rapidly cooling it. 

The Newcomen Engine in 1712 was the first steam engine to utilize steam power for mechanical work. Steam pushed a piston up and was cooled by water, creating a vacuum that let the piston down by gravity. It was also used to pump water. 

The industrial revolution was born out of high production demands, and with that came innovations that made processes more efficient and powerful.

A signature development in steam engines during the industrial revolution came from Scotland’s James Watt, whose improvements to the Newcomen engine made it use less steam and produce more power.

Richard Trevithick improved on the engines further by introducing high pressurized steam, and industrial processes gained a leap of progress in just a matter of decades. 

James Watt drastically improved the Newcomen engine. His design separates the cylinder where the steam is inserted and where it is cooled down, in a separate condenser. The steam cylinder loses much less heat and it takes less coal to heat because of it. 

Trevithick utilized high–pressure steam for his steam engine, which could move the pistons instead of relying on a partial vacuum for the downstroke. With this design, he created the “Puffing Devil” — a locomotive that was able to carry 6 people in 1801!

Watt later allowed steam to work on both sides of the cylinder, allowing for both push and pull. For rotational work, Watt also created the “parallel motion” linkage which allows the piston to move up and down while transferring movement to an arcing beam. 

Eventually, steam engines became commonplace as power sources, and the 1800s relied greatly on steam power for commercial uses like transportation. Today, steam power in transportation is no longer common but it is used for generating electricity. Steam–powered turbines are still found in nuclear power plants today

Steam engines were used in road vehicles ever since Trevithick's Puffing Devil with engineers continually improving the design and increasing the speed. In Great Britain, legislations prevented the spread of these vehicles — limiting speeds to 4 mph because of safety fears.

Train locomotives enjoyed great improvements and widespread use in the 19th century. Intense rivalry happened between engineers, leading to much innovation. The first steam railway company, Stockton and Darlington Railway, was formed in Northeast England in 1829. 

Steam turbines used for generating electricity had a simple design — rotating the turbine as a mechanical force powered by high–pressure steam. In 1884, Sir Charles Parsons created the first modern turbine, connected to a dynamo that generated electricity.

His design was adopted in major power stations worldwide.