Topic

steam engine

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Topic

steam engine

0 members

Overview

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work. The term “steam engine” is normally applied to reciprocating engines, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as “steam engines”. The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term “steam engine” can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Modern industry is stated by some writers to have begun in 1738 when brought out a . Others place the period as between 1750 and 1800, when the and steam engine came into being. It was marked by the development of labor-saving machinery. It was brought about by the change from handicraft to manufacture.”
— Sub-Committee on Administration , "The Present State of the Art of Industrial Management : Majority Report of Sub-Committee on Administration," ASME Transactions 34 (1912): p. 1131
“The industrial revolution was well underway before the steam-engine came into use for driving machinery. Only two prime-movers—the water wheel and the windmill—were widely available, and with very few exceptions these yielded no more than 10 h.p. and often less.”
— T. K. Derry & Trevor I. Williams, A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900 (1960) Ch.11, The Steam Engine
“In science its main worth is temporary, as a stepping-stone to something beyond. Even the Principia, as Newton, with characteristic modesty entitled his great work, is truly but the beginning of a natural philosophy, and no more an ultimate work than Watt's steam-engine, or Arkwright's spinning-machine.”
— Julius Charles Hare, ‎Augustus William Hare, ‎Edward Hayes Plumptre (1871). Guesses at Truth. p. 326
“What I say here is not to give room for believing, that Mr. Savery, who has since published this invention at London, is not actually the inventor. I do not doubt that the same thought may have occurred to him, as well as to others, without having learnt it elsewhere.”
— Denis Papin, as quoted by Bernard Forest de Bélidor, Architecture Hydraulique Vol.2, p. 309 Tr. Patrick Muirhead, The Life of James Watt (1859) p. 145
“I only just hint this to show what use this engine may be put to in working of mills, especially where coals are cheap. I have only this to urge, that water in its fall from any determinate height, has simply a force answerable and equal to the force that raises it.”
— Thomas Savery, The Miner's Friend; or, An Engine to Raise Water by Fire (1702) pp. 25-26
“When once the idea of the separate condensation was started, all these improvements followed as corollaries in quick succession, so that in the course of one or two days the invention was thus far complete in my mind, and I immediately set about an experiment to verify it practically.”
— James Watt, "Notes on Professor Robison's Dissertation on Steam-engines" (1769) from Robison's Essays on Various Subjects of Mechanical Philosophy (1822) ed. David Brewster Vol. 2, p. 347

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

On IJR

No public IJR answers mention steam engine yet. As people ask about it and share their answers, they'll appear here.

Overview

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work. The term “steam engine” is normally applied to reciprocating engines, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as “steam engines”. The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term “steam engine” can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Modern industry is stated by some writers to have begun in 1738 when brought out a . Others place the period as between 1750 and 1800, when the and steam engine came into being. It was marked by the development of labor-saving machinery. It was brought about by the change from handicraft to manufacture.”
— Sub-Committee on Administration , "The Present State of the Art of Industrial Management : Majority Report of Sub-Committee on Administration," ASME Transactions 34 (1912): p. 1131
“The industrial revolution was well underway before the steam-engine came into use for driving machinery. Only two prime-movers—the water wheel and the windmill—were widely available, and with very few exceptions these yielded no more than 10 h.p. and often less.”
— T. K. Derry & Trevor I. Williams, A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900 (1960) Ch.11, The Steam Engine
“In science its main worth is temporary, as a stepping-stone to something beyond. Even the Principia, as Newton, with characteristic modesty entitled his great work, is truly but the beginning of a natural philosophy, and no more an ultimate work than Watt's steam-engine, or Arkwright's spinning-machine.”
— Julius Charles Hare, ‎Augustus William Hare, ‎Edward Hayes Plumptre (1871). Guesses at Truth. p. 326
“What I say here is not to give room for believing, that Mr. Savery, who has since published this invention at London, is not actually the inventor. I do not doubt that the same thought may have occurred to him, as well as to others, without having learnt it elsewhere.”
— Denis Papin, as quoted by Bernard Forest de Bélidor, Architecture Hydraulique Vol.2, p. 309 Tr. Patrick Muirhead, The Life of James Watt (1859) p. 145
“I only just hint this to show what use this engine may be put to in working of mills, especially where coals are cheap. I have only this to urge, that water in its fall from any determinate height, has simply a force answerable and equal to the force that raises it.”
— Thomas Savery, The Miner's Friend; or, An Engine to Raise Water by Fire (1702) pp. 25-26
“When once the idea of the separate condensation was started, all these improvements followed as corollaries in quick succession, so that in the course of one or two days the invention was thus far complete in my mind, and I immediately set about an experiment to verify it practically.”
— James Watt, "Notes on Professor Robison's Dissertation on Steam-engines" (1769) from Robison's Essays on Various Subjects of Mechanical Philosophy (1822) ed. David Brewster Vol. 2, p. 347

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.