Steam Engine Inventor – Does Garmeds know who invented the steam engine? In our daily lives, we must be familiar with steam engines. One of the famous steam engine inventors named James Watt who managed to shake the world and even greatly influenced some of today’s technological sophistication, such as factory production machines, steam trains and so on. The following is an explanation of the history of the invention of the steam engine and the biography of the inventor of the steam engine who popularized it.
History of the Invention of the Steam Engine
Indeed, man has long known that the process of moving from liquid to gas by heating causes vapor. A simple example is when water boils in a kettle, the pressure on the funnel makes a whistle. As a result of the steam explosion, in the first century the invention of the steam engine was inspired by an Alexandrian mathematician named Hero to make a tool called the Aeolipile.
The Aeolipile is a round iron device filled with water. The Aeolipile has two L-shaped chimneys on opposite sides. The iron ball is then heated until the water boils and the steam coming from the chimney will spin the iron ball. The application of Aeolipile is not very practical for human needs. However, it was only an experiment to demonstrate the power of nature back then. Although only used as a decorative ornament, Aeolipile turned out to be a pioneer in the use of steam power for electric machines in the future.
The next inventor of the steam engine was born in 1606, namely a Spanish military and mining engineer named Heronimode Ayanz. Ayanz used a steam engine to use steam pressure to remove toxic gases and flood water from the mine. Ayanz boiled water in a vessel by placing two small pipes, one in the mine and the other outside. The water then boils to produce steam.
Ayanz first invented the steam engine, but in 1698 an English engineer and inventor named Thomas Savery also patented the steam engine and claims to have invented it first. The function of the steam engine invented by Savery was to remove flood water from the mine and distribute it to the plantations.
Save How the steam engine works also does not change much. In other words, it was an empty room with boiling water. This boiling water creates an outgoing vapor pressure (air) which pushes the water up. The savery machine still has drawbacks. The water it draws is confined to shallow depths. The flaw in the Savery steam engine was developed in 1712 by the English engineer and blacksmith Thomas Newcomen.
Newcomen’s steam engine used atmospheric pressure. Therefore, the air pressure in the room increases or decreases due to the presence of steam driving a piston that pumps water. New entrants started with the development of steam power as the prime mover. Second, the conversion of energy into steam motion was the forerunner of the steam engines by James Watt.
In 1764, after the Newcomen engine became widespread in mines, Scottish workshop worker James Watt began work on a steam engine. Watt discovered that the main drawback of Newcomen’s steam engine was that it wasted too much energy to operate. The development of more up-to-date engines was finally followed by the discoveries of James Watt.
Biography of James Watt, the Inventor of the Steam Engine
Like Thomas Alva Edison and the world’s greatest inventor, James Watt is considered one of the most important of all inventors of the steam engine. In the biography of James Watt, it is known that James Watt was born on January 19, 1736 in Greenock, Scotland. James Watt is a renowned engineer from Scotland, England. His father’s name was James Watt and his mother’s name was Agnes Muirhead. James Watt succeeded in developing the first efficient steam engine.
Greenock was a fishing village that became a bustling town with a fleet of steamships during Watt’s life. James Jr., Thomas Watt’s grandfather was a distinguished mathematician and school principal. James Jr. Thomas was a prominent Greenock resident, a successful carpenter and shipbuilder as a ship fitment expert and repaired compasses and other navigational equipment. He also regularly serves as Chief Justice and Treasurer of Greenock.
Despite James Watt’s mathematical talent, he was unable to attend his Greenock School regularly due to poor health. On the other hand, by helping his father with the carpentry, he gained knowledge of the mechanical engineering and tool handling that would be needed later. Young Watt was an avid reader and had found something of interest to him in every book he owned.
At the age of six, he was solving geometric problems and using his mother’s kettle to study steam. In his early teens, he began to show his math skills in particular. In his spare time, Watt drew with a pencil, engraved wood and metal on the tool bench, and worked. He created many original mechanical tasks and models and happily helped his father repair navigational equipment.
After his mother died in 1754, 18-year-old Watt went to London, where he trained as an instrument maker. He was unable to complete a proper apprenticeship due to health problems, but by 1756 he had had enough. Watt returned to Scotland in 1757.
He settled in the main trading city of Glasgow and opened shop on the University of Glasgow campus to manufacture and repair mathematical instruments such as sextants, compasses, barometers and laboratory balances. During his research, he proved to be influential and befriended several scholars who supported his future career. Among them are the famous economist Adam Smith and the English physicist Joseph Black.
In 1759, Watt partnered with Scottish architect and entrepreneur John Craig to manufacture and sell musical instruments and toys. This partnership lasted until 1765 and employed up to 16 workers. This steam engine turned out to be one of the drivers of the Industrial Revolution, especially in England and Europe in general. In honor of his accomplishments, his last name Watt was used to describe drive units such as power and engine power.
In 1759, a student at the University of Glasgow presented Watt with a model of Newcomen’s steam engine and suggested using it to power chariots instead of horses. Patented by the English inventor Thomas Newcomen in 1703, this engine drew steam into the cylinder, increasing atmospheric pressure and creating a vacuum which pushed the piston into the cylinder. In the 18th century, Newcomen engines were used in England and Europe, mainly for pumping water from mines.
Fascinated by the Newcomen engine, Watt set about creating a miniature model with a leaded steam cylinder and a piston attached to the drive wheel via a gearbox. In the winter of 1763-1764, John Anderson asked Watt of Glasgow to repair his model Newcomen engine. He was able to do that, but confused by the waste of steam, Watt began studying the history of the steam engine and experimenting with the properties of steam.
Watt independently proved the latent heat (the heat required to turn water into steam) theorized by his leader and supporter Joseph Black. Watt passed his work on to Black. Black is happy to pass on his knowledge. Watt was born out of a collaboration with the idea of a path to a better steam engine, based on his most famous invention, the split condenser.
Watt realized that the greatest weakness of the Newcomen steam engine was its poor fuel economy due to the rapid loss of latent heat. Newcomen’s engine was superior to earlier steam engines, but less efficient than others in terms of the amount of coal burned to produce steam. In the Newcomen engine, jets of steam and cold water were alternately sprayed into the same cylinder.
That is, each time the piston moves up and down, the cylinder walls are alternately heated and then cooled. Whenever steam enters the cylinder, it continues to condense until the cylinder is cooled to operating temperature by a jet of cold water. Consequently, some of the potential energy of the hot steam is lost with each cycle of the piston.
Watt’s solution, developed in May 1765 was to equip the machine with another chamber called the “condenser” in which vapor condensation occurred. Condensation occurs with little heat loss from the cylinder because the condensing chamber is separated from the working cylinder by the piston. The condensing chamber is always cold and under atmospheric pressure, and the cylinder is always hot.
In a watt steam engine, steam is drawn into the working cylinder under the boiler piston. When the piston reaches the top of the cylinder, the inlet valve that allows steam to enter the cylinder closes, while at the same time the valve that allows steam to escape from the condenser closes. Lower atmospheric pressure in the condenser pulls in the vapor, where it is cooled by the steam and condensed into liquid water by the steam.
This condensation process maintains a constant negative pressure in the capacitor which is supplied to the cylinder via the connecting pipe. The high external pressure then pushes the piston back into the cylinder, completing the power stroke. By separating the cylinder and condenser, the heat loss that plagued the Newcomen engine was eliminated, and the Watt steam engine produced the same “horsepower” while at the same time burning 60% less coal.
The savings will allow the machine’s watts to be used not only in mines, but wherever power is needed. However, Watt’s future success was never guaranteed and never would be. By the time he pioneered another capacitor idea in 1765, his research costs were mostly poor. After borrowing money from a friend, he finally had to find a job to support his family.
For about two years, he worked as a civil engineer, observing and directing the construction of several canals in Scotland, exploring the Glasgow coal fields for city officials and continuing to work on discoveries. After creating a small, practical model in 1768, Watt partnered with English inventor and trader John Roebuck to build and sell full-size steam engines.
In 1769 Watt patented another capacitor. Watt’s famous patent, entitled “A New Invented Method to Reduce Fire Engine Steam and Fuel Consumption,” remains one of the most important patents ever granted in England and is under consideration. While traveling to London in 1768 and applying for a patent, Watt met Matthew Boulton, the owner of a Birmingham manufacturing company known as the Soho Factory, which produced small metal objects.
Bolton and his company were known and respected in the English Enlightenment Movement of the 18th century. Balton graduated from school as a boy to work in his father’s shop. He was an excellent scholar with ample knowledge of languages and science, especially mathematics. In-store, he quickly introduces many valuable upgrades and is always looking for other ideas to bring to the business.
He was also a member of the renowned Lunar Society of Birmingham and was a group of people who came together to discuss natural philosophy, engineering and industrial development. Other members included oxygen discoverer Joseph Priestley, Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin’s grandfather), and experimental potter Josiah Wedgwood. Watt joined the group after becoming a partner at Vaulton.
A lavish and energetic scholar, Bolton met Benjamin Franklin in 1758. In 1766, these important men among other things responded and discussed the use of steam power for various useful purposes. They designed a new steam engine and Bolton was sent to Franklin to build a model to show in London. They still didn’t know Watt and his steam engine.
When Bolton met Watt in 1768, he liked the machine and decided to patent it. With Roebuck’s approval, Watt gave Boulton one-third of the shares. Finally, despite some hassle, Roebuck proposed transferring half of his Watts inventions to Matthew Boulton for a total of £1,000. This proposal was approved in November 1769.
In November 1774, Watt finally informed his old partner Roebuck that his steam engine had successfully completed field tests. When Watt wrote to Roebuck, he did not write with his usual enthusiasm and glamour. Instead, he simply said, “The fire engine I just found is a masterpiece, the answer is far better than any other fire engine ever made, and I hope that the invention will be of great help to me.”
Since then, Boulton and Watt have been able to manufacture a wide variety of machines that work in real-world applications. Machines that can be used for milling, weaving and grinding are awarded new innovations and patents. Steam engines were used for land and water transportation. Nearly all of the successful and significant inventions that have shaped the history of the steam engine over the years have come from the workshops of Bolton and Watt.
Working with Watt’s Bolton made him an internationally recognized figure. With 25 years of patents, he became wealthy, and he and Boulton became UK leaders in technology education with a reputation for innovative technology.
James Watt died on 25 August 1819 at Heathfield Hall at the age of 83. He was buried on 2 September 1819. Mary of Handsworth. His grave is now in the enlarged church.
Watt’s inventions made a very significant contribution to the Industrial Revolution and modern innovation, from the automobile to the railroad to the steamship to the factory, not to mention the social problems it caused. Today, Watt’s name is associated with streets, museums, and schools. Her story has influenced books, films and works of art, such as the Piccadilly Gardens and the statue of the Holy Cathedral.
Well, that’s an explanation of the inventor of the steam engine and the history of its development. In conclusion, we cannot only determine one inventor of the steam engine because scientists at that time worked hand in hand to continue to find new things to find the latest technology. Based on the story above, we can learn a lot from the curiosity of a great science for the benefit of many people.
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