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Definition: steam engine from The Penguin Dictionary of Science

A machine in which combustion occurs outside the working chamber. Steam generated on combustion is used to force down a cylinder; the reciprocating motion of a piston is turned into rotary motion by a flywheel. Compare ➤internal combustion engine.

steam engine

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Engine that uses the power of steam to produce useful work. The first successful steam engine was built in 1712 by English inventor Thomas Newcomen at Dudley, West Midlands; it was developed further by Scottish instrument maker James Watt from 1769 and by English mining engineer Richard Trevithick , whose high-pressure steam engine of 1802 led to the development of the steam locomotive. In Newcomen's engine, steam was admitted to a cylinder as a piston moved up, and was then condensed by a spray of water, allowing air pressure to force the piston downwards. James Watt improved Newcomen's engine in 1769 by condensing the steam outside the cylinder (thus saving energy formerly used to reheat the cylinder) and by using steam to move the piston. Watt also introduced the double-acting engine , in which steam is alternately sent to each side of the piston forcing it up and down. The compound engine (1781) uses the exhaust from one cylinder to drive the piston of another. A later development…
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Full text Article steam engine

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Engine powered by steam. Steam, generated by heating water, is used to produce movement. In some engines, the steam forces pistons to move along cylinders. This results in a reciprocating (back-and-forth) motion. A mechanism usually changes this into rotary motion. Steam locomotives use…
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Full text Article Steam Engine

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
Arguably the most important invention of the...
An engine powered by steam that contributed to the Industrial Revolution as well as a transportation revolution. Thomas Newcomen conceived of, experimented on, and built the first working steam engine. His idea of moving a piston inside a cylinder by atmospheric pressure by the partial vacuum of…
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Full text Article steam engine

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Engine that uses the power of steam to produce useful work. The first successful steam engine was built in 1712 by English inventor Thomas Newcomen at Dudley, West Midlands; it was developed further by Scottish instrument maker James Watt from 1769 and by English mining engineer Richard Trevithick , …
| 745 words
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Full text Article steam engine

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
machine for converting heat energy into mechanical energy using steam as a medium, or working fluid. When water is converted into steam it expands, its volume increasing about 1,600 times. The force produced by the conversion is the basis of all steam engines. Steam engines operate by having…
| 455 words
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Full text Article Steam Engine

From The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future Full text Article Transportation & Space Exploration
Date: 1690 The steam engine was not the invention of one man in particular. Rather, it was the end result of the work of several men who built on each other's ideas. The French inventor Denis Papin, however, is the one person who is generally credited with being the first to explore the power of…
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Full text Article Newcomen Steam Engine

From The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future Full text Article Transportation & Space Exploration
Date: 1712 Thomas Newcomen's steam engine, invented in 1712, was dubbed the “atmospheric steam engine” because it worked primarily through the use of atmospheric pressure. Newcomen and his partner, John Calley, were not exactly mechanically inclined—neither knew much about mechanical engineering- …
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Full text Article 1776: Steam engine

From English History: People, Places and Events That Built a Country
1776: Steam engine
For the whole of its history up until the 18th century, humankind had depended upon the natural world for power. James Watt was a Scottish engineer who set himself the challenge of finding an alternative. In 1764, he started work on an engine that would convert fossil fuels into power by heating…
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Full text Article STEAM ENGINE

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
British physicist and astronomer That the history of the invention of a piece of mechanism [the steam engine], and tho description of its structure, operation, and uses, should be capable of being rendered a subject-matter destined not alone for the instruction of engineers or machinists, but for…
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Full text Article steam engine

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Machine that uses steam power to perform mechanical work through the agency of heat (hence a prime mover). In a steam engine, hot steam , usually supplied by a boiler , expands under pressure, and part of the heat energy is converted into work. The rest of the heat may be allowed to escape, or, for…
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Full text Article How did the steam engine change Britain?

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Background Britain was still a very agricultural country in the 17th century. By 1900 it was a fully industrialized country. Full answer Thomas Savery built a pioneering steam-driven water pump in 1696. In 1708 Thomas Newcomen built the first practical steam engine, but it was not until James Watt…
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