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Thomas Savery
Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor. He invented the first steam engine. He had been working on figuring out how to pump water out of coal mines. His machine was made with a closed vessel filled with water with pressure which steam came from. This forced water up and out of the mines. A cold water sprinkler was used to condense the steam which created a vacuum which sucked more water out of the mine shaft through a bottom valve. -
Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen was an English Blacksmith. He invented the atmospheric steam engine which was an improvement to Thomas Savery's earlier design. This design used atmospheric pressure to make it work. Steam was pumped into a cylinder and then condensed using cold water, which created a vacuum on the inside of the cylinder. This atmospheric pressure caused downward strokes on the piston. -
James Watt
James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer. He was given the job to fix one of Newcomen's steam engines. He ended up making improvements to it and was credited for it. His design had a condenser that could cool while the cylinder was hot. This would soon become the most common design for modern steam engines. -
James Pickard and Matthew Wasbrough
In this year, James Pickard and Matthew Wasbrough improved the steam engine. They added a crank, a rod, and a flywheel to Thomas Newcomer's self acting atmospheric engine. -
James Watt
In 1783, James Watt invented the double-acting steam engine. In this steam acts on each side of the piston instead of just one side. This made it possible for the engine to drive machinery in many manufacturing industries. -
James Watt
In this year James Watt made his fourth patent. It describes the parallel motion which is an arrangement of links by which the top of the piston-rod is connected to the beam so that it can either push or pull and at the same time is guided to move in a straight line. -
Boulton and Watt
In 1786, Boulton and Watt made a double acting rotative engine. It was given to the new Albion flourmills in London. This was followed by a second engine in 1789. -
Evening Star
The last steam locomotive was made in 1960. It was built by the British Railways and was called the Evening Star. It was important to the steam engine because it was the last one made and it showed how far the invention came along from the very beginning. -
Why I chose these 8 events.
There were many different dates I could have chosen for the steam engine. It was improved many times throughout history. I chose these ones because I thought they were most important. It includes the very first invention of the steam engine. It also includes the most recent one. In between are different improvements made to make the steam engine run better. I chose the other dates because they stuck out and were very important to making this invention. That is why I chose these eight events.