Definition of a Steam Engine
A steam engine is a machine that employed the power of rapid condensation and expansion of steam in power generation. It performed its mechanical work by applying steam as its primary working fluid (Hills & Cardwell, 2017).The expansion principle worked in such a way that the water evaporated on the application of heat and the generated force played a significant role in the movement of the piston inside the cylinder. Rackliffe, (2015) asserted that the primary role of a steam engine is to generate mechanical power by using steam energy.
Components of a Steam Engine
The steam engine has four different functional parts enabled it to produce the much-needed energy. The first part was the fire which enabled the burning of the coal (Ganesan, 2012). The next significant section in a steam engine was a boiler full of water (Smith, 2011). The fire heated the boiler to produce the steam. The third significant component of the steam engine included the cylinder and piston. The steam generated from the boiler is channeled into the cylinder causing the piston to move on both sides in a movement known as reciprocating (Gupta & Narayan, 2016). The back-and-forth motion is responsible for making the wheels to move. The last primary aspect of the steam engine was the machine attached to a piston (Ewing, 2013).
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How It Was Developed
First, it remains fundamental to note that three inventors developed the steam engine over a period of approximately 100 years. Thomas Savery advanced the first ever steam-powered machine in 1698. The central role of the engine was to assist in pumping out water from coal mines. The simplicity with which the machine came with meant that it lacked any substantial moving parts. Furthermore, it was mostly inefficient because it used a massive amount of coal to pump a small amount of water (Rutter & Keirstead, 2012).Therefore, Savery is accredited as the first person to utilize steam as a source of energy (Dickinson, 2011). Stearns, (2018) pointed out that the second individual that sought to improve Savery's invention was Thomas Newcomen who aimed at resolving the inefficiencies seen with the first invention. He, therefore, developed a machine that utilized the steam energy to move a piston in one direction. In 1763, James Watt from Scotland began improving the design initiated by Newcomen (Lira, 2013).The major change started by Watt was to find a way in which the piston would be moved back and forth while in the cylinder (Miller, 2015). Most fundamentally, he also found ways in which the back-and-forth motion could be leveraged to cause a wheel to move (Lord, 2013).
Where It Was Invented And Why?
Allen (2011) asserted that the majority of the major inventions and developments in the steam engine were done in Britain. The industrial revolution saw the rise of many factories and mills that required energy from wind, water, man, or horses (Rackliffe, 2015). However, these means of energy production were either unreliable or inefficient thus prompting the need for a steam engine that would provide a stable source of energy (Taylor, 2015).
How It Contributed To Industrial Revolution
As earlier intimated, the steam engine was invented to provide an efficient and reliable form of energy (Hudson, 2014). First, it revolutionized technology by enabling the operation of the steam-powered locomotives. Knowles, (2013) pointed out that the steam locomotives included vehicles that ran on tracks or rails and were used in the movement of passengers and materials. As such, transportation improved thus providing profits to business that relied on mobility from one location to the other (Nuvolari, Verspagen,& Von Tunzelmann, 2011). Secondly, it meant that factories could be located in any place unlike in the previous scenarios where they had to find a site near a water source for energy (Mantoux, 2013). Most fundamentally, the steam engine phased out unreliable sources of energy such as wind and horses thereby increasing productivity in the factories and providing workers with better ways of operation in the factories (Neaverson & Palmer, 2012).
References
Allen, R. C. (2011). Why the industrial revolution was British: commerce, induced invention, and the scientific revolution 1. The Economic History Review, 64(2), 357-384.
Dickinson, H. W. (2011). A short history of the steam engine. Cambridge University Press.
Ewing, J. A. (2013). The steam-engine and other heat-engines. Cambridge University Press.
Ganesan, V. (2012). Internal combustion engines. McGraw Hill Education (India) Pvt Ltd.
Gupta, A., & Narayan, S. (2016). A review of heat engines. Hidraulica, (1), 67.
Hills, R. L., & Cardwell, D. S. L. (2017). Thermodynamics and practical engineering in the nineteenth century. In The Development of Science and Technology in Nineteenth-Century Britain (pp. VIII-1). Routledge.
Hudson, P. (2014). The industrial revolution. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Knowles, L. C. A. (2013). The Industrial & Commercial Revolutions in Great Britain during the Nineteenth Century. Routledge.
Lira, C. (2013). A brief history of the steam engine. Website: www. egr. msu. Edu/lira/supp/steam.
Lord, J. (2013). Capital and Steam Power: 1750-1800. Routledge.
Mantoux, P. (2013). The industrial revolution in the eighteenth century: An outline of the beginnings of the modern factory system in England. Routledge.
Miller, D. P. (2015). James Watt, chemist: Understanding the origins of the steam age. Routledge.
Neaverson, P., & Palmer, M. (2012). Industrial archaeology: principles and practice. Routledge.
Nuvolari, A., Verspagen, B., & Von Tunzelmann, N. (2011). The early diffusion of the steam engine in Britain, 1700–1800: a reappraisal. Cliometrica, 5(3), 291-321.
Rackliffe, M. (2015). Inventing a Revolution. Appleseeds, 17(4), 18. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=100956895&site=eds-live
Rutter, P., & Keirstead, J. (2012). A brief history and the possible future of urban energy systems. Energy Policy, 50, 72-80.
Smith, C. (2011). ‘The “crinoline” of our steam engineers’: Reinventing the marine compound engine, 1850–1885”. Geographies of nineteenth-century science, 229-54.
Stearns, P. N. (2018). The industrial revolution in world history. Routledge.
Taylor, G. R. (2015). The transportation revolution, 1815-60 . Routledge.
Wrigley, E. A. (2013). Energy and the English industrial revolution. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 371(1986), 20110568.
