Thomas Newcomen the Man

Abstract

Three hundred years after the first successful Newcomen engine was installed, the few available facts about the inventor’s life and family are collected here, mainly from previous papers in the Newcomen Society Transactions, the forerunner of this Journal. Newcomen’s trade as an ironmonger and his strong Nonconformist faith directed his energies into transforming the mining industry at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Some conjectures are made as to his relationship with other engine builders, general engineers and scientists of the age.