Steam engine

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"Steam machine" redirects here. For other uses, see Steam machine (disambiguation).
For the railway engine, see steam locomotive.

A model of a beam engine featuring James Watt's parallel linkage for double action. [1]

A mill engine from Stott Park Bobbin Mill, Cumbria, England

A steam locomotive from East Germany. This class of engine was built in 1942–1950 and operated until 1988.

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. In simple
terms, the steam engine uses the expansion principle of chemistry, where heat applied to water tranforms
the water to steam and then pushes a piston (cylinder). This pushing force is then transformed, by way of
a connecting rod and turbine wheel, into rotational force for work.
Steam engines are external combustion engines,[2] where the working fluid is separated from the
combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal
energy may be used. The ideal thermodynamiccycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine
cycle. In the cycle, water is heated and changes into steam in a boiler operating at a high pressure. When
expanded using pistons or turbines mechanical work is done. The reduced-pressure steam is then
exhausted to the atmosphere, or condensed and pumped back into the boiler.
In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants (including boilers etc.)
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. However, a more detailed look at the steam
locomotive referred to the engine as only that part where the heat in the steam was turned into motion of
the piston, and hence enabled separate statements for boiler efficiency and engine efficiency. Specialized
devices such as steam hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on the steam pressure supplied
from a separate boiler.
The use of boiling water to produce mechanical motion goes back over 2000 years, but early devices were
not practical. The Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont obtained a patent for a rudimentary
steam-powered water pump in 1606.[3] In 1698 Thomas Saverypatented a steam pump that used steam in
direct contact with the water being pumped. Savery's steam pump used condensing steam to create a
vacuum and draw water into a chamber, and then applied pressurized steam to further pump the water.
Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine was the first commercial true steam engine using a piston, and
was used in 1712 for pumping flood water from a mine. 104 were in use by 1733. Eventually over two
thousand of them were installed.[4]
In 1781 Scottish engineer James Watt patented a steam engine that produced continuous rotary
motion.[5] Watt's ten-horsepower engines enabled a wide range of manufacturing machinery to be powered.
The engines could be sited anywhere that water and coal or wood fuelcould be obtained. By 1883, engines
that could provide 10,000 hp had become feasible.[6] The stationary steam engine was a key component of
the Industrial Revolution, allowing factories to locate where water power was unavailable. The atmospheric
engines of Newcomen and Watt were large compared to the amount of power they produced, but high-
pressure steam engines were light enough to be applied to vehicles such as traction engines and railway
locomotives.
Reciprocating piston type steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th
century, when advances in the design of electric motors and internal combustion engines gradually resulted
in the replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines in commercial usage, and the ascendancy of
steam turbines in power generation.[7] Considering that the great majority of worldwide electric generation is
produced by turbine type steam engines, the "steam age" is continuing with energy levels far beyond those
of the turn of the 19th and 20th century.

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Early designs and modifications
o 1.2Early experiments
o 1.3Pumping engines
o 1.4Piston steam engines
o 1.5High-pressure engines
o 1.6Horizontal stationary engine
o 1.7Road vehicles
o 1.8Marine engines
o 1.9Steam locomotives
o 1.10Steam turbines
o 1.11Present development
 2Components and accessories of steam engines
o 2.1Heat source
o 2.2Boilers
o 2.3Motor units
o 2.4Cold sink
o 2.5Water pump
o 2.6Monitoring and control
o 2.7Governor
 3Engine configuration
o 3.1Simple engine
o 3.2Compound engines
o 3.3Multiple-expansion engines
 4Types of motor units
o 4.1Reciprocating piston
o 4.2Uniflow (or unaflow) engine
 o 4.3Turbine engines
o 4.4Oscillating cylinder steam engines
o 4.5Rotary steam engines
o 4.6Rocket type
 5Safety
 6Steam cycle
 7Efficiency
 8See also
 9References
 10Bibliography
 11Further reading
 12External links

History[edit]
Early designs and modifications[edit]
Main articles: History of the steam engine and Timeline of steam power
Although steam powered devices were developed before the first practical piston steam engine, they were
not directly connected to the Newcomen atmospheric engine. The Newcomen engine owes its
development to the discovery of atmospheric pressure and to shared technical information whose path is
traceable. For development of the commercial steam engine see: History of the steam
engine#Development of the commercial steam engine

 In Roman Egypt, the aeolipile (also known as a Hero's engine)

described by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century AD is considered to
be the first recorded steam engine. Torque was produced by steam jets
exiting the turbine.
 In Ottoman Egypt, the inventor Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn
Ma'ruf described a steam turbine device for rotating a spit in 1551.[8]
 In the Spanish Empire, the inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y
Beaumont obtained a patent for a rudimentary steam-powered water
pump in 1606.
 Thomas Savery, in 1698, patented the first practical, atmospheric
pressure, steam engine of 1 horsepower (750 W). It had no piston or
moving parts, only taps. It was a fire engine, a kind of thermic syphon,
in which steam was admitted to an empty container and then
condensed. The vacuum thus created was used to suck water from the
sump at the bottom of the mine. The "fire engine" had to be mounted
within 25 ft (8 m) of the water level though it could then lift the water
another 80 ft (24 m) using positive pressure.
 Thomas Newcomen, in 1712, developed the first commercially
successful piston steam engine of 5 horsepower (3,700 W). Its
principle was to condense steam in a cylinder, thus causing
atmospheric pressure to drive a piston and produce mechanical work.
 James Watt, in 1781, patented a steam engine that produced
continued rotary motion with a power of about 10 horsepower
(7,500 W). It was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam
at a pressure just above atmospheric to drive the piston helped by a
partial vacuum. It was an improvement of Newcomen's engine.
 After Richard Trevithick invented the lightweight, high-pressure steam
engine in 1797-1799, steam engines became small enough to be used
in smaller businesses and for use in steam locomotives.
See also: Steam power during the Industrial Revolution
Since the early 18th century, steam power has been applied to a variety of practical uses. At first it
powered reciprocating pumps, but from the 1780s rotative engines (those converting reciprocating
motion into rotary motion) began to appear, driving factory machinery such as power looms. Speed control
in response to changing load made direct application of a steam engine to spinning machinery impractical
until the invention of the Corliss engine in 1848. Until then steam engines were used to pump water to turn
a water wheel, which powered the spinning machinery.[9][10] At the turn of the 19th century, steam-powered
transport on both sea and land began to make its appearance, becoming more dominant as the century
progressed.
Steam engines can be said to have been the moving force behind the Industrial Revolution and saw
widespread commercial use driving machinery in factories, mills and mines; powering pumping stations;
and propelling transport appliances such as railway locomotives, ships, steamboats and road vehicles.
Their use in agriculture led to an increase in the land available for cultivation. There have at one time or
another been steam-powered farm tractors, motorcycles (without much success) and even automobiles as
the Stanley Steamer.[11]
The weight of boilers and condensers generally makes the power-to-weight ratio of a steam plant lower
than for internal combustion engines.[12] For mobile applications steam has been largely superseded by
internal combustion engines or electric motors. However, most electric power is generated using steam
turbine plant, so that indirectly the world's industry is still dependent on steam power. Recent concerns
about fuel sources and pollution have incited a renewed interest in steam both as a component
of cogenerationprocesses and as a prime mover. This is becoming known as the Advanced
Steam movement.[citation needed]

Early experiments[edit]
The history of the steam engine stretches back as far as the first century; the first recorded rudimentary
steam-powered "engine" being the aeolipile described by Hero of Alexandria, a mathematician and
engineer in Roman Egypt.[13] In the following centuries, the few steam-powered "engines" known were, like
the aeolipile,[14] essentially experimental devices used by inventors to demonstrate the properties of steam.
A rudimentary steam turbine device was described by Taqi al-Din[8] in Ottoman Egypt in 1551 and
by Giovanni Branca[15]in Italy in 1629.[16] Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont received patents in 1606 for fifty
steam powered inventions, including a water pump for draining inundated mines.[17] Denis Papin,
a Huguenot refugee, did some useful work on the steam digester in 1679, and first used a piston to raise
weights in 1690.[18]

Pumping engines[edit]
The first commercial steam-powered device was a water pump, developed in 1698 by Thomas Savery.[19] It
used condensing steam to create a vacuum which was used to raise water from below, then it used steam
pressure to raise it higher. Small engines were effective though larger models were problematic. They
proved only to have a limited lift height and were prone to boiler explosions. It received some use in
mines, pumping stations and for supplying water wheels used to power textile machinery.[20] An attractive
feature of the Savery engine was its low cost. Bento de Moura Portugal introduced an ingenious
improvement of Savery's construction "to render it capable of working itself", as described by John
Smeaton in the Philosophical Transactions published in 1751.[21] It continued to be manufactured until the
late 18th century.[22] One engine was still known to be operating in 1820.[23]

Piston steam engines[edit]

Jacob Leupold Steam engine 1720

The first commercially successful true engine, in that it could generate power and transmit it to a machine,
was the atmospheric engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen around 1712.[24][25] It was an improvement
over Savery's steam pump, using a piston as proposed by Papin. Newcomen's engine was relatively
inefficient, and in most cases was used for pumping water. It worked by creating a partial vacuum by
condensing steam under a piston within a cylinder. It was employed for draining mine workings at depths
hitherto impossible, and also for providing a reusable water supply for driving waterwheels at factories sited
away from a suitable "head". Water that had passed over the wheel was pumped back up into a storage
reservoir above the wheel.[26]
In 1720 Jacob Leupold described a two-cylinder high-pressure steam engine.[27] The invention was
published in his major work "Theatri Machinarum Hydraulicarum".[28] The engine used two heavy pistons to
provide motion to a water pump. Each piston was raised by the steam pressure and returned to its original
position by gravity. The two pistons shared a common four way rotary valve connected directly to a steam
boiler.

Early Watt pumping engine

The next major step occurred when James Watt developed (1763–1775) an improved version of
Newcomen's engine, with a separate condenser. Boulton and Watt's early engines used half as much coal
as John Smeaton's improved version of Newcomen's.[29] Newcomen's and Watt's early engines were
"atmospheric". They were powered by air pressure pushing a piston into the partial vacuum generated
by condensing steam, instead of the pressure of expanding steam. The engine cylinders had to be large
because the only usable force acting on them was due to atmospheric pressure.[26][30]
Watt proceeded to develop his engine further, modifying it to provide a rotary motion suitable for driving
factory machinery. This enabled factories to be sited away from rivers, and further accelerated the pace of
the Industrial Revolution.[30][31][32]

High-pressure engines[edit]
The meaning of high pressure, together with an actual value above ambient, depends on the era in which
the term was used. For early use of the term Van Reimsdijk[33] refers to steam being at a sufficiently high
pressure that it could be exhausted to atmosphere without reliance on a vacuum to enable it to perform
useful work. Ewing[34] states that Watt's condensing engines were known, at the time, as low pressure
compared to high pressure, non-condensing engines of the same period.
Watt's patent prevented others from making high pressure and compound engines. Shortly after Watt's
patent expired in 1800, Richard Trevithick and, separately, Oliver Evans in 1801[32][35] introduced engines
using high-pressure steam; Trevithick obtained his high-pressure engine patent in 1802,[36] and Evans had
made several working models before then.[37] These were much more powerful for a given cylinder size
than previous engines and could be made small enough for transport applications. Thereafter,
technological developments and improvements in manufacturing techniques (partly brought about by the
adoption of the steam engine as a power source) resulted in the design of more efficient engines that could
be smaller, faster, or more powerful, depending on the intended application.[26]
The Cornish engine was developed by Trevithick and others in the 1810s.[38] It was a compound cycle
engine that used high-pressure steam expansively, then condensed the low-pressure steam, making it
relatively efficient. The Cornish engine had irregular motion and torque though the cycle, limiting it mainly to
pumping. Cornish engines were used in mines and for water supply until the late 19th century. [39]

Horizontal stationary engine[edit]

Main article: Stationary steam engine
Early builders of stationary steam engines considered that horizontal cylinders would be subject to
excessive wear. Their engines were therefore arranged with the piston axis vertical. In time the horizontal
arrangement became more popular, allowing compact, but powerful engines to be fitted in smaller spaces.
The acme of the horizontal engine was the Corliss steam engine, patented in 1849, which was a four-valve
counter flow engine with separate steam admission and exhaust valves and automatic variable steam
cutoff. When Corliss was given the Rumford Medal, the committee said that "no one invention since Watt's
time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam engine".[40] In addition to using 30% less steam, it
provided more uniform speed due to variable steam cut off, making it well suited to manufacturing,
especially cotton spinning.[26][32]

Road vehicles[edit]
Main article: History of steam road vehicles
The first experimental road going steam powered vehicles were built in the late 18th century, but it was not
until after Richard Trevithick had developed the use of high-pressure steam, around 1800, that mobile
steam engines became a practical proposition. The first half of the 19th century saw great progress in
steam vehicle design, and by the 1850s it was becoming viable to produce them on a commercial basis.
This progress was dampened by legislation which limited or prohibited the use of steam powered vehicles
on roads. Improvements in vehicle technology continued from the 1860s to the 1920s. Steam road vehicles
were used for many applications. In the 20th century, the rapid development of internal combustion
engine technology led to the demise of the steam engine as a source of propulsion of vehicles on a
commercial basis, with relatively few remaining in use beyond the Second World War. Many of these
vehicles were acquired by enthusiasts for preservation, and numerous examples are still in existence. In
the 1960s the air pollution problems in California gave rise to a brief period of interest in developing and
studying steam powered vehicles as a possible means of reducing the pollution. Apart from interest by
steam enthusiasts, the occasional replica vehicle, and experimental technology no steam vehicles are in
production at present.

Marine engines[edit]

A triple-expansion marine steam engine on the 1907 oceangoing tug Hercules

Main article: Marine steam engine

Near the end of the 19th century compound engines came into widespread use. Compound
engines exhausted steam in to successively larger cylinders to accommodate the higher volumes at
reduced pressures, giving improved efficiency. These stages were called expansions, with double- and
triple-expansion engines being common, especially in shipping where efficiency was important to reduce
the weight of coal carried.[26] Steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th
century, when advances in the design of electric motors and internal combustion engines gradually resulted
in the replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines, with shipping in the 20th-century relying upon
the steam turbine.[7]

Steam locomotives[edit]
Main articles: Steam locomotive and Traction engine
As the development of steam engines progressed through the 18th century, various attempts were made to
apply them to road and railway use.[41] In 1784, William Murdoch, a Scottish inventor, built a prototype
steam road locomotive.[42] An early working model of a steam rail locomotive was designed and constructed
by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the United States probably during the 1780s or 1790s.[43] His steam
locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks.
The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in the United
Kingdom and, on 21 February 1804, the world's first railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed
steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr
Tydfil to Abercynon in south Wales.[41][44][45] The design incorporated a number of important innovations that
included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine and increased its efficiency.
Trevithick visited the Newcastle area later in 1804 and the colliery railways in north-east England became
the leading centre for experimentation and development of steam locomotives.[46]
Trevithick continued his own experiments using a trio of locomotives, concluding with the Catch Me Who
Can in 1808. Only four years later, the successful twin-cylinder locomotive Salamanca by Matthew
Murray was used by the edge railed rack and pinion Middleton Railway.[47] In 1825 George Stephenson built
the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. This was the first public steam railway in the world
and then in 1829, he built The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials.[48] The Liverpool
and Manchester Railway opened in 1830 making exclusive use of steam power for both passenger and
freight trains.
Steam locomotives continued to be manufactured until the late twentieth century in places such
as China and the former East Germany (where the DR Class 52.80 was produced).[49]

Steam turbines[edit]
Main article: Steam turbine
The final major evolution of the steam engine design was the use of steam turbines starting in the late part
of the 19th century. Steam turbines are generally more efficient than reciprocating piston type steam
engines (for outputs above several hundred horsepower), have fewer moving parts, and provide rotary
power directly instead of through a connecting rod system or similar means.[50] Steam turbines virtually
replaced reciprocating engines in electricity generating stations early in the 20th century, where their
efficiency, higher speed appropriate to generator service, and smooth rotation were advantages. Today
most electric power is provided by steam turbines. In the United States 90% of the electric power is
produced in this way using a variety of heat sources.[7] Steam turbines were extensively applied for
propulsion of large ships throughout most of the 20th century.

Present development[edit]
Main article: Advanced steam technology
Although the reciprocating steam engine is no longer in widespread commercial use, various companies
are exploring or exploiting the potential of the engine as an alternative to internal combustion engines. The
company Energiprojekt AB in Sweden has made progress in using modern materials for harnessing the
power of steam. The efficiency of Energiprojekt's steam engine reaches some 27-30% on high-pressure
engines. It is a single-step, 5-cylinder engine (no compound) with superheated steam and consumes
approx. 4 kg (8.8 lb) of steam per kWh.[51][not in citation given]

Components and accessories of steam engines[edit]

There are two fundamental components of a steam plant: the boiler or steam generator, and the "motor
unit", referred to itself as a "steam engine". Stationary steam engines in fixed buildings may have the boiler
and engine in separate buildings some distance apart. For portable or mobile use, such as steam
locomotives, the two are mounted together.[52][53]
The widely used reciprocating engine typically consisted of a cast iron cylinder, piston, connecting rod and
beam or a crank and flywheel, and miscellaneous linkages. Steam was alternately supplied and exhausted
by one or more valves. Speed control was either automatic, using a governor, or by a manual valve. The
cylinder casting contained steam supply and exhaust ports.
Engines equipped with a condenser are a separate type than those that exhaust to the atmosphere.
Other components are often present; pumps (such as an injector) to supply water to the boiler during
operation, condensers to recirculate the water and recover the latent heat of vaporisation,
and superheaters to raise the temperature of the steam above its saturated vapour point, and various
mechanisms to increase the draft for fireboxes. When coal is used, a chain or screw stoking mechanism
and its drive engine or motor may be included to move the fuel from a supply bin (bunker) to the
firebox.[54] See: Mechanical stoker

Heat source[edit]
The heat required for boiling the water and raising the temperature of the steam can be derived from
various sources, most commonly from burning combustible materials with an appropriate supply of air in a
closed space (called variously combustion chamber, firebox, furnace). In some cases the heat source is
a nuclear reactor, geothermal energy, solar energy or waste heat from an internal combustion engine or
industrial process. In the case of model or toy steam engines, the heat source can be an electric heating
element.

Boilers[edit]
Main article: Boiler (steam generator)
An industrial boiler used for a stationary steam engine

Boilers are pressure vessels that contain water to be boiled, and features that transfer the heat to the
water as effectively as possible.
The two most common types are:

1. water-tube boiler – water is passed through tubes surrounded by

hot gas
2. fire-tube boiler – hot gas is passed through tubes immersed in
water, the same water also circulates in a water jacket surrounding
the firebox and, in high-output locomotive boilers, also passes
through tubes in the firebox itself (thermic syphons and security
circulators)
Fire tube boilers were the main type used for early high-pressure steam (typical steam locomotive
practice), but they were to a large extent displaced by more economical water tube boilers in the late 19th
century for marine propulsion and large stationary applications.
Many boilers raise the temperature of the steam after it has left that part of the boiler where it is in contact
with the water. Known as superheating it turns 'wet steam' into 'superheated steam'. It avoids the steam
condensing in the engine cylinders, and gives a significantly higher efficiency.[55]

Motor units[edit]
Further information: § Types of motor units
In a steam engine, a piston or steam turbine or any other similar device for doing mechanical work takes a
supply of steam at high pressure and temperature and gives out a supply of steam at lower pressure and
temperature, using as much of the difference in steam energy as possible to do mechanical work.
These "motor units" are often called 'steam engines' in their own right. Engines using compressed air or
other gases differ from steam engines only in details that depend on the nature of the gas
although compressed air has been used in steam engines without change.[56]

Cold sink[edit]
As with all heat engines, the majority of primary energy must be emitted as waste heat at relatively low
temperature.[57]
The simplest cold sink is to vent the steam to the environment. This is often used on steam locomotives, as
the released steam is vented up the chimney so as to increase the draw on the fire, which greatly increases
engine power, but reduces efficiency.
Sometimes the waste heat is useful itself, and in those cases very high overall efficiency can be obtained.
For example, combined heat and power (CHP) systems use the waste steam for district heating, exceeding
80% combined efficiency.[57]
Where CHP is not used, steam turbines in stationary power plants use surface condensers as a cold sink.
The condensers are cooled by water flow from oceans, rivers, lakes, and often by cooling towers which
evaporate water to provide cooling energy removal. The resulting condensed hot water, is then pumped
back up to pressure and sent back to the boiler. A dry type cooling tower is similar to an automobile
radiator and is used in locations where water is costly. Waste heat can also be ejected by evaporative (wet)
cooling towers use pass the rejected to external water cycle that evaporates some of flow to the air. [clarification
needed] Cooling towers often have visible plumes due to the evaporated water condensing into droplets carried

up by the warm air. Evaporative cooling towers need less water flow than "once-through" cooling by river or
lake water; a 700 megawatt coal-fired power plant may use about 3600 cubic metres of make-up water
every hour for evaporative cooling, but would need about twenty times as much if cooled by river
water.[58][59]Evaporative water cannot be used for subsequent purposes (other than rain somewhere),
whereas river water can be re-used. In all cases, the steam plant water, which must be kept pure, is kept
separate from the cooling water or air, and once the low-pressure steam condenses into water, it is
returned to the boiler.

An injector uses a jet of steam to force water into the boiler. Injectors are inefficient but simple enough to be suitable for
use on locomotives.

Water pump[edit]
The Rankine cycle and most practical steam engines have a water pump to recycle or top up the boiler
water, so that they may be run continuously. Utility and industrial boilers commonly use multi-
stage centrifugal pumps; however, other types are used. Another means of supplying lower-pressure boiler
feed water is an injector, which uses a steam jet usually supplied from the boiler. Injectors became popular
in the 1850s but are no longer widely used, except in applications such as steam locomotives. [60] It is the
pressurization of the water that circulates through the steam boiler that allows the water to be raised to
temperatures well above 100 °C boiling point of water at one atmospheric pressure, and by that means to
increase the efficiency of the steam cycle.

Monitoring and control[edit]

Richard's indicator instrument of 1875. See: Indicator diagram (below)

For safety reasons, nearly all steam engines are equipped with mechanisms to monitor the boiler, such as
a pressure gauge and a sight glass to monitor the water level.
Many engines, stationary and mobile, are also fitted with a governor to regulate the speed of the engine
without the need for human interference.
The most useful instrument for analyzing the performance of steam engines is the steam engine indicator.
Early versions were in use by 1851,[61] but the most successful indicator was developed for the high speed
engine inventor and manufacturer Charles Porter by Charles Richard and exhibited at London Exhibition in
1862.[32] The steam engine indicator traces on paper the pressure in the cylinder throughout the cycle,
which can be used to spot various problems and calculate developed horsepower.[62] It was routinely used
by engineers, mechanics and insurance inspectors. The engine indicator can also be used on internal
combustion engines. See image of indicator diagram below (in Types of motor units section).
Centrifugal governor in the Boulton & Watt engine 1788 Lap Engine.

Governor[edit]
Main article: Governor (device)
The centrifugal governor was adopted by James Watt for use on a steam engine in 1788 after Watt's
partner Boulton saw one on the equipment of a flour mill Boulton & Watt were building.[63] The governor
could not actually hold a set speed, because it would assume a new constant speed in response to load
changes. The governor was able to handle smaller variations such as those caused by fluctuating heat load
to the boiler. Also, there was a tendency for oscillation whenever there was a speed change. As a
consequence, engines equipped only with this governor were not suitable for operations requiring constant
speed, such as cotton spinning.[64] The governor was improved over time and coupled with variable steam
cut off, good speed control in response to changes in load was attainable near the end of the 19th century.

Engine configuration[edit]
Simple engine[edit]
In a simple engine, or "single expansion engine" the charge of steam passes through the entire expansion
process in an individual cylinder, although a simple engine may have one or more individual cylinders. [65] It
is then exhausted directly into the atmosphere or into a condenser. As steam expands in passing through a
high-pressure engine, its temperature drops because no heat is being added to the system; this is known
as adiabatic expansion and results in steam entering the cylinder at high temperature and leaving at lower
temperature. This causes a cycle of heating and cooling of the cylinder with every stroke, which is a source
of inefficiency.[66]
The dominant efficiency loss in reciprocating steam engines is cylinder condensation and re-evaporation.
The steam cylinder and adjacent metal parts/ports operate at a temperature about half way between the
steam admission saturation temperature and the saturation temperature corresponding to the exhaust
pressure. As high pressure steam is admitted into the working cylinder, much of the high temperature
steam is condensed as water droplets onto the metal surfaces, significantly reducing the steam available
for expansive work. When the expanding steam reaches low pressure (especially during the exhaust
stroke), the previously deposited water droplets that had just been formed within the cylinder/ports now boil
away (re-evaporation) and this steam does no further work in the cylinder.
There are practical limits on the expansion ratio of a steam engine cylinder, as increasing cylinder surface
area tends to exacerbate the cylinder condensation and re-evaporation issues. This negates the theoretical
advantages associated with a high ratio of expansion in an individual cylinder.

Compound engines[edit]
Main article: Compound engine
A method to lessen the magnitude of energy loss to a very long cylinder was invented in 1804 by British
engineer Arthur Woolf, who patented his Woolf high-pressure compound engine in 1805. In the
compound engine, high-pressure steam from the boiler expands in a high-pressure (HP) cylinder and
then enters one or more subsequent lower-pressure (LP) cylinders. The complete expansion of the
steam now occurs across multiple cylinders, with the overall temperature drop within each cylinder reduced
considerably. By expanding the steam in steps with smaller temperature range (within each cylinder) the
condensation and re-evaporation efficiency issue (described above) is reduced. This reduces the
magnitude of cylinder heating and cooling, increasing the efficiency of the engine. By staging the expansion
in multiple cylinders, variations of torque can be reduced.[26] To derive equal work from lower-pressure
cylinder requires a larger cylinder volume as this steam occupies a greater volume. Therefore, the bore,
and in rare cases the stroke, are increased in low-pressure cylinders, resulting in larger cylinders.[26]
Double-expansion (usually known as compound) engines expanded the steam in two stages. The pairs
may be duplicated or the work of the large low-pressure cylinder can be split with one high-pressure
cylinder exhausting into one or the other, giving a three-cylinder layout where cylinder and piston diameter
are about the same, making the reciprocating masses easier to balance.[26]
Two-cylinder compounds can be arranged as:

 Cross compounds: The cylinders are side by side.

 Tandem compounds: The cylinders are end to end, driving a
common connecting rod
 Angle compounds: The cylinders are arranged in a V (usually at a 90°
angle) and drive a common crank.
With two-cylinder compounds used in railway work, the pistons are connected to the cranks as with a two-
cylinder simple at 90° out of phase with each other (quartered). When the double-expansion group is
duplicated, producing a four-cylinder compound, the individual pistons within the group are usually
balanced at 180°, the groups being set at 90° to each other. In one case (the first type of Vauclain
compound), the pistons worked in the same phase driving a common crosshead and crank, again set at
90° as for a two-cylinder engine. With the three-cylinder compound arrangement, the LP cranks were either
set at 90° with the HP one at 135° to the other two, or in some cases all three cranks were set at 120°.[citation
needed]

The adoption of compounding was common for industrial units, for road engines and almost universal for
marine engines after 1880; it was not universally popular in railway locomotives where it was often
perceived as complicated. This is partly due to the harsh railway operating environment and limited space
afforded by the loading gauge (particularly in Britain, where compounding was never common and not
employed after 1930). However, although never in the majority, it was popular in many other countries.[67]

Multiple-expansion engines[edit]
Main article: Compound engine

An animation of a simplified triple-expansion engine.

High-pressure steam (red) enters from the boiler and passes through the engine, exhausting as low-pressure steam
(blue), usually to a condenser.

It is a logical extension of the compound engine (described above) to split the expansion into yet more
stages to increase efficiency. The result is the multiple-expansion engine. Such engines use either three
or four expansion stages and are known as triple- and quadruple-expansion engines respectively. These
engines use a series of cylinders of progressively increasing diameter. These cylinders are designed to
divide the work into equal shares for each expansion stage. As with the double-expansion engine, if space
is at a premium, then two smaller cylinders may be used for the low-pressure stage. Multiple-expansion
engines typically had the cylinders arranged inline, but various other formations were used. In the late 19th
century, the Yarrow-Schlick-Tweedy balancing "system" was used on some marine triple-expansion
engines. Y-S-T engines divided the low-pressure expansion stages between two cylinders, one at each end
of the engine. This allowed the crankshaft to be better balanced, resulting in a smoother, faster-responding
engine which ran with less vibration. This made the four-cylinder triple-expansion engine popular with large
passenger liners (such as the Olympic class), but this was ultimately replaced by the virtually vibration-
free turbine engine.[citation needed] It is noted however that triple expansion reciprocating steam engines were
used to drive the WWII Liberty ships, by far the largest number of identical ships ever built. 2700 ships
were built, in the USA, from a British original design.
The image to the right shows an animation of a triple-expansion engine. The steam travels through the
engine from left to right. The valve chest for each of the cylinders is to the left of the corresponding cylinder.
Land-based steam engines could exhaust their steam to atmosphere, as feed water was usually readily
available. Prior to and during World War I, the expansion engine dominated marine applications, where
high vessel speed was not essential. It was, however, superseded by the British invention steam
turbine where speed was required, for instance in warships, such as the dreadnought battleships,
and ocean liners. HMS Dreadnought of 1905 was the first major warship to replace the proven technology
of the reciprocating engine with the then-novel steam turbine.[citation needed][68]

Types of motor units[edit]

Reciprocating piston[edit]

Double acting stationary engine. This was the common mill engine of the mid 19th century. Note the slide valve with
concave, almost "D" shaped, underside.

Schematic Indicator diagram showing the four events in a double piston stroke. See: Monitoring and control (above)

Main article: Reciprocating engine

In most reciprocating piston engines, the steam reverses its direction of flow at each stroke (counterflow),
entering and exhausting from the same end of the cylinder. The complete engine cycle occupies one
rotation of the crank and two piston strokes; the cycle also comprises four events – admission, expansion,
exhaust, compression. These events are controlled by valves often working inside a steam chest adjacent
to the cylinder; the valves distribute the steam by opening and closing steam ports communicating with the
cylinder end(s) and are driven by valve gear, of which there are many types.[citation needed]
The simplest valve gears give events of fixed length during the engine cycle and often make the engine
rotate in only one direction. Many however have a reversing mechanism which additionally can provide
means for saving steam as speed and momentum are gained by gradually "shortening the cutoff" or rather,
shortening the admission event; this in turn proportionately lengthens the expansion period. However, as
one and the same valve usually controls both steam flows, a short cutoff at admission adversely affects the
exhaust and compression periods which should ideally always be kept fairly constant; if the exhaust event
is too brief, the totality of the exhaust steam cannot evacuate the cylinder, choking it and giving excessive
compression ("kick back").[citation needed]
In the 1840s and 50s, there were attempts to overcome this problem by means of various patent valve
gears with a separate, variable cutoff expansion valve riding on the back of the main slide valve; the latter
usually had fixed or limited cutoff. The combined setup gave a fair approximation of the ideal events, at the
expense of increased friction and wear, and the mechanism tended to be complicated. The usual
compromise solution has been to provide lap by lengthening rubbing surfaces of the valve in such a way as
to overlap the port on the admission side, with the effect that the exhaust side remains open for a longer
period after cut-off on the admission side has occurred. This expedient has since been generally
considered satisfactory for most purposes and makes possible the use of the
simpler Stephenson, Joy and Walschaerts motions. Corliss, and later, poppet valvegears had separate
admission and exhaust valves driven by trip mechanisms or cams profiled so as to give ideal events; most
of these gears never succeeded outside of the stationary marketplace due to various other issues including
leakage and more delicate mechanisms.[67][69]
Compression
Before the exhaust phase is quite complete, the exhaust side of the
valve closes, shutting a portion of the exhaust steam inside the
cylinder. This determines the compression phase where a cushion of
steam is formed against which the piston does work whilst its velocity is
rapidly decreasing; it moreover obviates the pressure and temperature
shock, which would otherwise be caused by the sudden admission of
the high-pressure steam at the beginning of the following cycle.[citation
needed]

Lead
The above effects are further enhanced by providing lead: as was
later discovered with the internal combustion engine, it has been
found advantageous since the late 1830s to advance the
admission phase, giving the valve lead so that admission occurs a
little before the end of the exhaust stroke in order to fill
the clearance volume comprising the ports and the cylinder ends
(not part of the piston-swept volume) before the steam begins to
exert effort on the piston.[70]

Uniflow (or unaflow) engine[edit]

Schematic animation of a uniflow steam engine.

The poppet valves are controlled by the rotating camshaft at the top.
High-pressure steam enters, red, and exhausts, yellow.

Main article: Uniflow steam engine

Uniflow engines attempt to remedy the difficulties arising from the
usual counterflow cycle where, during each stroke, the port and
the cylinder walls will be cooled by the passing exhaust steam,
whilst the hotter incoming admission steam will waste some of its
energy in restoring working temperature. The aim of the uniflow is
to remedy this defect and improve efficiency by providing an
additional port uncovered by the piston at the end of each stroke
making the steam flow only in one direction. By this means, the
simple-expansion uniflow engine gives efficiency equivalent to that
of classic compound systems with the added advantage of
superior part-load performance, and comparable efficiency to
turbines for smaller engines below one thousand horsepower.
However, the thermal expansion gradient uniflow engines produce
along the cylinder wall gives practical difficulties.[citation needed].
The Quasiturbine is a uniflow rotary steam engine where steam
intakes in hot areas, while exhausting in cold areas.

Turbine engines[edit]

A rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in a power plant

Main article: Steam turbine

A steam turbine consists of one or more rotors (rotating discs)
mounted on a drive shaft, alternating with a series of stators (static
discs) fixed to the turbine casing. The rotors have a propeller-like
arrangement of blades at the outer edge. Steam acts upon these
blades, producing rotary motion. The stator consists of a similar,
but fixed, series of blades that serve to redirect the steam flow
onto the next rotor stage. A steam turbine often exhausts into
a surface condenser that provides a vacuum. The stages of a
steam turbine are typically arranged to extract the maximum
potential work from a specific velocity and pressure of steam,
giving rise to a series of variably sized high- and low-pressure
stages. Turbines are only efficient if they rotate at relatively high
speed, therefore they are usually connected to reduction gearing
to drive lower speed applications, such as a ship's propeller. In the
vast majority of large electric generating stations, turbines are
directly connected to generators with no reduction gearing. Typical
speeds are 3600 revolutions per minute (RPM) in the USA with 60
Hertz power, and 3000 RPM in Europe and other countries with 50
Hertz electric power systems. In nuclear power applications the
turbines typically run at half these speeds, 1800 RPM and 1500
RPM. A turbine rotor is also only capable of providing power when
rotating in one direction. Therefore, a reversing stage or gearbox
is usually required where power is required in the opposite
direction.
Steam turbines provide direct rotational force and therefore do not
require a linkage mechanism to convert reciprocating to rotary
motion. Thus, they produce smoother rotational forces on the
output shaft. This contributes to a lower maintenance requirement
and less wear on the machinery they power than a comparable
reciprocating engine.[citation needed]

Turbinia – the first steam turbine-powered ship

The main use for steam turbines is in electricity generation (in the
1990s about 90% of the world's electric production was by use of
steam turbines)[7] however the recent widespread application of
large gas turbine units and typical combined cycle power plants
has resulted in reduction of this percentage to the 80% regime for
steam turbines. In electricity production, the high speed of turbine
rotation matches well with the speed of modern electric
generators, which are typically direct connected to their driving
turbines. In marine service, (pioneered on the Turbinia), steam
turbines with reduction gearing (although the Turbinia has direct
turbines to propellers with no reduction gearbox) dominated large
ship propulsion throughout the late 20th century, being more
efficient (and requiring far less maintenance) than reciprocating
steam engines. In recent decades, reciprocating Diesel engines,
and gas turbines, have almost entirely supplanted steam
propulsion for marine applications.
Virtually all nuclear power plants generate electricity by heating
water to provide steam that drives a turbine connected to
an electrical generator. Nuclear-powered ships and
submarines either use a steam turbine directly for main propulsion,
with generators providing auxiliary power, or else employ turbo-
electric transmission, where the steam drives a turbo generator set
with propulsion provided by electric motors. A limited number
of steam turbine railroad locomotives were manufactured. Some
non-condensing direct-drive locomotives did meet with some
success for long haul freight operations in Sweden and for express
passenger work in Britain, but were not repeated. Elsewhere,
notably in the U.S.A., more advanced designs with electric
transmission were built experimentally, but not reproduced. It was
found that steam turbines were not ideally suited to the railroad
environment and these locomotives failed to oust the classic
reciprocating steam unit in the way that modern diesel and electric
traction has done.[citation needed]
 Operation of a simple oscillating cylinder steam engine

Oscillating cylinder steam engines[edit]

Main article: Oscillating cylinder steam engine
An oscillating cylinder steam engine is a variant of the simple
expansion steam engine which does not require valves to direct
steam into and out of the cylinder. Instead of valves, the entire
cylinder rocks, or oscillates, such that one or more holes in the
cylinder line up with holes in a fixed port face or in the pivot
mounting (trunnion). These engines are mainly used in toys and
models, because of their simplicity, but have also been used in full
size working engines, mainly on ships where their compactness is
valued.[citation needed]

Rotary steam engines[edit]

It is possible to use a mechanism based on a pistonless rotary
engine such as the Wankel engine in place of the cylinders
and valve gear of a conventional reciprocating steam engine.
Many such engines have been designed, from the time of James
Watt to the present day, but relatively few were actually built and
even fewer went into quantity production; see link at bottom of
article for more details. The major problem is the difficulty of
sealing the rotors to make them steam-tight in the face of wear
and thermal expansion; the resulting leakage made them very
inefficient. Lack of expansive working, or any means of control of
the cutoff, is also a serious problem with many such designs.[citation
needed]

By the 1840s, it was clear that the concept had inherent problems
and rotary engines were treated with some derision in the
technical press. However, the arrival of electricity on the scene,
and the obvious advantages of driving a dynamo directly from a
high-speed engine, led to something of a revival in interest in the
1880s and 1890s, and a few designs had some limited
success.[citation needed]. The Quasiturbine is a new type of uniflow rotary
steam engine.
Of the few designs that were manufactured in quantity, those of
the Hult Brothers Rotary Steam Engine Company of Stockholm,
Sweden, and the spherical engine of Beauchamp Tower are
notable. Tower's engines were used by the Great Eastern
Railway to drive lighting dynamos on their locomotives, and by
the Admiralty for driving dynamos on board the ships of the Royal
Navy. They were eventually replaced in these niche applications
by steam turbines.[citation needed]
 An aeolipilerotates due to the steam escaping from the arms. No
practical use was made of this effect.

Rocket type[edit]
Main article: Steam rocket
The aeolipile represents the use of steam by the rocket-reaction
principle, although not for direct propulsion.
In more modern times there has been limited use of steam for
rocketry – particularly for rocket cars. Steam rocketry works by
filling a pressure vessel with hot water at high pressure and
opening a valve leading to a suitable nozzle. The drop in pressure
immediately boils some of the water and the steam leaves through
a nozzle, creating a propulsive force.[71]

Safety[edit]
Steam engines possess boilers and other components that
are pressure vessels that contain a great deal of potential energy.
Steam escapes and boiler explosions (typically BLEVEs) can and
have in the past caused great loss of life. While variations in
standards may exist in different countries, stringent legal, testing,
training, care with manufacture, operation and certification is
applied to ensure safety.
Failure modes may include:

 over-pressurisation of the boiler

 insufficient water in the boiler causing overheating and vessel
failure
 buildup of sediment and scale which cause local hot spots,
especially in riverboats using dirty feed water
 pressure vessel failure of the boiler due to inadequate
construction or maintenance.
 escape of steam from pipework/boiler causing scalding
Steam engines frequently possess two independent mechanisms
for ensuring that the pressure in the boiler does not go too high;
one may be adjusted by the user, the second is typically designed
as an ultimate fail-safe. Such safety valves traditionally used a
simple lever to restrain a plug valve in the top of a boiler. One end
of the lever carried a weight or spring that restrained the valve
against steam pressure. Early valves could be adjusted by engine
drivers, leading to many accidents when a driver fastened the
valve down to allow greater steam pressure and more power from
the engine. The more recent type of safety valve uses an
adjustable spring-loaded valve, which is locked such that
operators may not tamper with its adjustment unless a seal
illegally is broken. This arrangement is considerably safer.[citation needed]
Lead fusible plugs may be present in the crown of the boiler's
firebox. If the water level drops, such that the temperature of the
firebox crown increases significantly, the lead melts and the steam
escapes, warning the operators, who may then manually suppress
the fire. Except in the smallest of boilers the steam escape has
little effect on dampening the fire. The plugs are also too small in
area to lower steam pressure significantly, depressurizing the
boiler. If they were any larger, the volume of escaping steam
would itself endanger the crew.[citation needed]

Steam cycle[edit]
Main article: Rankine cycle
See also: Thermodynamics and Heat transfer

Flow diagram of the four main devices used in the Rankine cycle. 1).
Feedwater pump 2). Boiler or steam generator 3). Turbine or engine
4). Condenser; where Q=heat and W=work. Most of the heat is
rejected as waste.

The Rankine cycle is the fundamental thermodynamic

underpinning of the steam engine. The cycle is an arrangement of
components as is typically used for simple power production, and
utilizes the phase change of water (boiling water producing steam,
condensing exhaust steam, producing liquid water)) to provide a
practical heat/power conversion system. The heat is supplied
externally to a closed loop with some of the heat added being
converted to work and the waste heat being removed in a
condenser. The Rankine cycle is used in virtually all steam power
production applications. In the 1990s, Rankine steam cycles
generated about 90% of all electric power used throughout the
world, including virtually all solar, biomass, coal and nuclear power
plants. It is named after William John Macquorn Rankine, a
Scottish polymath.
The Rankine cycle is sometimes referred to as a practical Carnot
cycle because, when an efficient turbine is used, the TS
diagram begins to resemble the Carnot cycle. The main difference
is that heat addition (in the boiler) and rejection (in the condenser)
are isobaric (constant pressure) processes in the Rankine cycle
and isothermal (constant temperature) processes in the theoretical
Carnot cycle. In this cycle a pump is used to pressurize the
working fluid which is received from the condenser as a liquid not
as a gas. Pumping the working fluid in liquid form during the cycle
requires a small fraction of the energy to transport it compared to
the energy needed to compress the working fluid in gaseous form
in a compressor (as in the Carnot cycle). The cycle of a
reciprocating steam engine differs from that of turbines because of
condensation and re-evaporation occurring in the cylinder or in the
steam inlet passages.[72]
The working fluid in a Rankine cycle can operate as a closed loop
system, where the working fluid is recycled continuously, or may
be an "open loop" system, where the exhaust steam is directly
released to the atmosphere, and a separate source of water
feeding the boiler is supplied. Normally water is the fluid of choice
due to its favourable properties, such as non-toxic and unreactive
chemistry, abundance, low cost, and its thermodynamic
properties. Mercury is the working fluid in the mercury vapor
turbine. Low boiling hydrocarbons can be used in a binary cycle.
The steam engine contributed much to the development of
thermodynamic theory; however, the only applications of scientific
theory that influenced the steam engine were the original concepts
of harnessing the power of steam and atmospheric pressure and
knowledge of properties of heat and steam. The experimental
measurements made by Watt on a model steam engine led to the
development of the separate condenser. Watt independently
discovered latent heat, which was confirmed by the original
discoverer Joseph Black, who also advised Watt on experimental
procedures. Watt was also aware of the change in the boiling point
of water with pressure. Otherwise, the improvements to the engine
itself were more mechanical in nature.[22] The thermodynamic
concepts of the Rankine cycle did give engineers the
understanding needed to calculate efficiency which aided the
development of modern high-pressure and -temperature boilers
and the steam turbine.

Efficiency[edit]
Main article: Thermal efficiency
See also: Engine efficiency § Steam engine
The efficiency of an engine cycle can be calculated by dividing the
energy output of mechanical work that the engine produces by the
energy input to the engine by the burning fuel.
The historical measure of a steam engine's energy efficiency was
its "duty". The concept of duty was first introduced by Watt in order
to illustrate how much more efficient his engines were over the
earlier Newcomen designs. Duty is the number of foot-
pounds of work delivered by burning one bushel (94 pounds) of
coal. The best examples of Newcomen designs had a duty of
about 7 million, but most were closer to 5 million. Watt's original
low-pressure designs were able to deliver duty as high as 25
million, but averaged about 17. This was a three-fold improvement
over the average Newcomen design. Early Watt engines equipped
with high-pressure steam improved this to 65 million.[73]
No heat engine can be more efficient than the Carnot cycle, in
which heat is moved from a high temperature reservoir to one at a
low temperature, and the efficiency depends on the temperature
difference. For the greatest efficiency, steam engines should be
operated at the highest steam temperature possible (superheated
steam), and release the waste heat at the lowest temperature
possible.
The efficiency of a Rankine cycle is usually limited by the working
fluid. Without the pressure reaching supercritical levels for the
working fluid, the temperature range the cycle can operate over is
quite small; in steam turbines, turbine entry temperatures are
typically 565 °C (the creep limit of stainless steel) and condenser
temperatures are around 30 °C. This gives a theoretical Carnot
efficiency of about 63% compared with an actual efficiency of 42%
for a modern coal-fired power station. This low turbine entry
temperature (compared with a gas turbine) is why the Rankine
cycle is often used as a bottoming cycle in combined-cycle gas
turbine power stations.[citation needed]
One of the principal advantages the Rankine cycle holds over
others is that during the compression stage relatively little work is
required to drive the pump, the working fluid being in its liquid
phase at this point. By condensing the fluid, the work required by
the pump consumes only 1% to 3% of the turbine (or reciprocating
engine)power and contributes to a much higher efficiency for a
real cycle. The benefit of this is lost somewhat due to the lower
heat addition temperature. Gas turbines, for instance, have turbine
entry temperatures approaching 1500 °C. Nonetheless, the
efficiencies of actual large steam cycles and large modern gas
turbines are fairly well matched.[citation needed]
In practice, a reciprocating steam engine cycle exhausting the
steam to atmosphere will typically have an efficiency (including the
boiler) in the range of 1-10%, but with the addition of a condenser
and multiple expansion, and high steam pressure/temperature, it
may be greatly improved, historically into the regime of 10-20%,
and very rarely slightly higher.
A modern large electrical power station (producing several
hundred megawatts of electrical output) with steam
reheat, economizer etc. will achieve efficiency in the mid 40%
range, with the most efficient units approaching 50% thermal
efficiency.[74]
It is also possible to capture the waste heat using cogeneration in
which the waste heat is used for heating a lower boiling point
working fluid or as a heat source for district heating via saturated
low-pressure steam.

A steam locomotive – a GNR N2 Class No.1744 at Weybourne

nr. Sheringham, Norfolk

A steam-poweredbicycle


Preserved British steam-powered fire engine – an example of a
mobile steam engine. This is a horse-drawn vehicle: the steam
engine drives the water pump

See also[edit]
 Compound locomotive
 Geared steam locomotive
 History of steam road vehicles
 James Rumsey
 Lean's Engine Reporter
 List of steam fairs
 List of steam museums
 List of steam technology patents
 Live steam
 Model steam engine
 Salomon de Caus
 Steam aircraft
 Steam boat
 Steam car
 Steam locomotive
 Steam power during the Industrial Revolution
 Still engine
 Timeline of steam power
 Traction engine

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Bibliography[edit]
 Crump, Thomas (2007). A Brief History of the Age of Steam:
From the First Engine to the Boats and Railways.
 Hills, Richard L. (1989). Power from Steam: A history of the
stationary steam engine. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 0 521 34356 9.
 Hunter, Louis C. (1985). A History of Industrial Power in the
United States, 1730–1930, Vol. 2: Steam Power.
Charolttesville: University Press of Virginia.
 Marsden, Ben (2004). Watt's Perfect Engine: Steam and the
Age of Invention. Columbia University Press.
 Robinson, Eric H. "The Early Diffusion of Steam
Power" Journal of Economic History Vol. 34, No. 1, (March
1974), pp. 91–107
 Rose, Joshua. Modern Steam Engines (1887, reprint 2003)
 Stuart, Robert, A Descriptive History of the Steam
Engine (London: J. Knight and H. Lacey, 1824.)
 Van Riemsdijk, J. T. Pictorial History of Steam Power (1980).

Further reading[edit]
 Thurston, Robert Henry (1878). A History of the Growth of the
Steam-engine. The International Scientific Series. New York:
D. Appleton and Company. OCLC 16507415.

External links[edit]
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chnology

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Simple boilers Box

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Boiler feed Feedwater pump

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ff

ansion valve

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rn connecting rod engine

column beam engine

ple engine

ty valve

ple compound engine

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king fluid

Precursors Savery Engine (1698)

 Newcomen Memorial Engine (1725)

Newcomen engine Fairbottom Bobs (1760)

 Elsecar Engine (1795)

 Kinneil Engine (1768)

 Old Bess (1777)

Beam Chacewater Mine engine (1778)

 Smethwick Engine (1779)

 Resolution (1781)
Watt engine
 Soho Manufactory engine (1782)

 Bradley Works engine (1783)

Rotative beam Whitbread Engine (1785)

 National Museum of Scotland engine(1786)

 Lap Engine (1788)

 Richard Trevithick

 Puffing Devil (1801)

High-pressure London Steam Carriage (1803)

 "Coalbrookdale Locomotive" (1803)

 "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive (1804)

Compound Woolf's compound engine (1803)

Murray Murray's Hypocycloidal Engine (1805)

  Salamanca (1812)

 Porter-Allen (1862)
High-speed
 Ljungström (1908)

sary of steam locomotive components

ory of steam road vehicles

not's fardier à vapeur (1769)

doch's model steam carriage (1784)

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ern steam

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Marine: steamship

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Rail:
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Agriculture:
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Road:
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Military: steam tank (wheeled)

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Space and air:
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Miscellaneous: Steam clock

 Glossary of steam locomotive components

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