| The World's First Steam Engine Thomas
Newcomen who was born in 1663/4 at Dartmouth England was the inventor of the world’s
first commercial steam engine. Many people give the credit for the invention of the steam
engine to James Watt, but Thomas Newcomen set to work his first engine to drain the flood
water from a coal mine in 1712, which was twenty four years before James Watt was born.
Newcomen’s first engine was built in Staffordshire where it pumped 120 gallons of
water each minute from a coal mine seam which was 150 feet below the surface. This engine
was powered by the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere pushing down onto the upper
side of the piston, which was within a vertically positioned cylinder.
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To compel the piston to move through a
powering stroke a vacuum was created on the underside by the condensation of steam.
The vacuum was created by a cold water spray.
The piston was powered in one direction, and then the heavy pump rods pulled the piston
back to the top of the cylinder before another powered stroke could be made.
For each stroke ten gallons of water was brought to the surface. |
| The existence of the
Newcomen engine was rediscovered when a drawing was found in Stafford in 1868. This
drawing was made in 1719 by a Wolverhampton file maker called Thomas Barney. The model was
made by interpreting the known facts from this drawing and, with a close consultation with
the Newcomen Society. The cover photograph of my book is taken from the engine in
miniature which is constructed to 1/16 the full size. To research and construct this engine, 6400 hours were needed over a period of
six years.
There are 42,200 miniature ceramic bricks in the engine
house and, all the metal parts were made by hand forging. |
Miniature
Brick Making Machine
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