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Who Invented the First Steam Engine
The first piston engine was developed in 1690 by the French physicist
and inventor Denis Papin and was used for pumping water.
In 1698, the English engineer Thomas Savery built a steam engine that
used two copper vessels alternately filled with steam from a boiler.
Savery's engine was also used for pumping water, as was the so-called
atmospheric engine designed by the English inventor Thomas Newcomen in 1705.
In the course of making improvements to the Newcomen engine. The Scottish
engineer and inventor James Watt produced a series of inventions that made
possible the modern steam engine. Watt's first important development was
the design of an engine that incorporated a separate condensing chamber for
the steam. This engine, patented in 1769, greatly increased the economy of
the Newcomen machine by avoiding the loss of steam that occurred in alternate
heating and cooling of the engine cylinder. In Watt's engine, the cylinder
was insulated and remained at steam temperature.
Another radical departure in the design of the early Watt engines was the use
of steam pressure instead of atmospheric pressure to perform the actual work
of the engine. Watt also devised a method in which the reciprocating pistons
of engines drove a revolving flywheel. He accomplished this first by a system
of gearing, and later by means of a crankshaft, as in modern steam engines.
Watt's other improvements and inventions included application of the principle
of double action, whereby steam was admitted to each end of the cylinder
alternately to drive the piston back and forth. He also equipped his engines
with throttle valves to control speed and also with governors in order to
maintain automatically a constant speed of operation.
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