The First Atmospheric Steam Engine

Like many other world changing inventions, the steam engine was first created to solve a seemingly minor problem. Mines in the early 18th century had to be pumped free of water using hand or animal powered machines that slowed down the rate of extraction dreadfully and limited the possibilities of mineral exploration. In 1712 England, an inventor named Thomas Newcomen put together a prototype steam engine designed to pump water out of a mine.

This atmospheric steam engine brought steam into a vessel. The valve that takes in the steam then closed, cooling the steam and causing it to condense into water. This would create a volume in the upper part of the chamber, which created a pressure differential that would power a piston that would operate the pump. The potential industrial applications of this soon became apparent, far beyond that of the mining industry. Surprisingly, the Necomen engine was hardly improved upon for decades, although it was widely used to jump-start the early industrial revolution in England, although it was not quite so broadly used until later in the century. Trade barriers prevented the technology from spreading elsewhere in the world, which gave the British Empire a brutal comparative advantage on the imperial world stage of the 17th century.

The Newcomen engine lead directly to the development of the more efficient Watt engine in the 1770s. It was created as inventor James Watt was working on gradual improvements to the Newcomen engine during his tenure at Glasgow University.