Atmospheric Engine Research Articles

The Newcomen Engine at Great Wyrley, 1722

The Newcomen Engine at Great Wyrley, 1722

Some early Newcomen Engines and the Legal Disputes surrounding them

Some early Newcomen Engines and the Legal Disputes surrounding them

Early Newcomen Engines on the Warwickshire Coalfield, 1714-1736

Early Newcomen Engines on the Warwickshire Coalfield, 1714-1736

Papers on Newcomen Engines m previous Volumes of Transactions

Papers on Newcomen Engines m previous Volumes of Transactions

The 1712 and other Newcomen Engines of the Earls of Dudley

The 1712 and other Newcomen Engines of the Earls of Dudley

Dyes and Dyeing 1775–1860

The history of the dyestuffs industry during the period 1775–1860 is interesting for three reasons. In the first place it was in connection with the manufacture of synthetic dyestuffs, begun in 1856, that the industrial research laboratory and the organization scientist first unmistakably appeared in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Secondly, there are the enigmas of W. H. Perkin, the man who discovered and manufactured the first coal-tar colours, but who retired somewhat abruptly from the industry in 1874: just after the synthesis of alizarine. Thirdly, the dyestuffs industry was in intimate association with the textile industries which had for a long time been subject to frequent radical scientific and technological innovation. Among the most important of these we may mention John Smeaton's classic paper of 1759 on the maximum work obtainable from a given fall of water: a problem important not only for the abstract science of mechanics, but also for the design of waterwheels—the main source of power for the early textile mills. (The waterwheel was not, during the eighteenth century, the epitome of the quaint and picturesque: it was in the van of scientific and technical progress.) Again, the textile industries were quick to employ the Watt rotative engine; previously a two cylinder Newcomen engine had been tried out. Bleaching powders, based on Scheele's discovery of chlorine and its properties, were rapidly adopted: in this context one cannot help contrasting the indifference of medical science to Davy's early suggestion of using nitrous oxide as an anaesthetic; or Faraday's comment in 1818 on the anaesthetic power of sulphuric ether. The textile industries saw, over this period, a rapid succession of new machines, the pace of invention being so hot that in 1832 Charles Babbage reported that machines became obsolete long before they wore out. A Salford cotton mill was the first industrial establishment to use gas lighting: James Thomson, calico printer, introduced gas lighting to the town of Clitheroe when he installed it in his works. And there were many other important technical and scientific innovations. It was to supply these industries, so well accustomed to change, that the synthetic coal-tar dyestuffs were introduced from 1856 onwards. It is interesting that, so far as we can see, the appearance of these synthetic dyestuffs was the last in the series of major innovations in the textiles and related industries: at least until recent times.

The Newcomen Engine and Coalworks at The Hayes, Lye, Stourbridge, 1760-69

The Newcomen Engine and Coalworks at The Hayes, Lye, Stourbridge, 1760-69

Wolverhampton as the Site of the First Newcomen Engine

Wolverhampton as the Site of the First Newcomen Engine

Arthur Woolf, 1766–1837

ONE of the most interesting chapters in the history of the steam engine is that relating to the Cornish pumping engine. Early in the eighteenth century, Newcomen engines were installed for pumping at the Cornish mines, and in 1777 these began to be superseded by the low-pressure condensing engines of Boulton and Watt, which required much less coal. While the mines gained greatly by the use of the latter, the all-embracing patent of Boulton and Watt prevented other inventors from putting their ideas into practice. The expiry of this patent in 1800 was a boon to the whole county and through the work especially of Woolf and Trevithick, the pumping engine of the nineteenth century proved as superior to the Boulton and Watt engines as the latter had been superior to the Newcomen engines. Of Trevi-thick's work a great deal will be said at the forthcoming centenary celebrations, while of Woolf's work a review was given in a paper entitled A Cornish Engineer, Arthur Woolf, 1766–1837, read to the Newcomen Society by Mr. Rhys Jenkins on January 18. The first great improvement due to Woolf and Trevithick was the use of steam pressures up to 40 lb. per sq. in., while Woolf was one of the pioneers of the compound engine. Like all their contemporaries, these engineers worked at a time when the caloric theory still held sway, and they were quite ignorant of the true theory of heat. Carnot, however, in his famous essay of 1824, referred to Trevithick and Woolf as being among the veritable creators of the steam engine, and it is as such they will be remembered.

Site of Newcomen's Engine

Site of Newcomen's Engine

The Site of Newcomen's Engine of 1712

The Site of Newcomen's Engine of 1712

Calendar of Patent Records

June 29, 1722.—A patent was granted on June 29, 1722, to Martin Triewald, the Swedish engineer, for his invention of a “certain engine or machine for drawing water out of mines and collyeries by the power of the atmosphere”. Triewald, who was in England when the first Newcomen engines were being set up and himself helped in the erection of one, built the first engine in Sweden, that for the Danne-mora mines, and is the author of the earliest monograph on the steam engine, which was published at Stockholm in 1734. Triewald claims to have made improvements on the engine, but what these were and what was the construction for which his patent was granted he does not say.

The Valve Gear of Newcomen's Engine

The Valve Gear of Newcomen's Engine

The Industrial Revolution

MISS BUER, in NATURE of May 7, p. 671, is, I think, under a wrong impression in stating that the use of Newcomen's engine (in England) was not widespread. Statistics are not available, but in 1769, John Smeaton obtained a list of 99 engines that had been erected in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne district alone. Pryce, in “Mineralogia Cornubiensis,” 1778. gives the figure for Cornwall as 60 at that date. We have to reflect that the materials of one such engine might cost £1000, and its annual upkeep £200.

The Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology

THIS latest volume of Transactions of the Newcomen Society is one of wide interest. The subjects dealt with range from chain pumps of the seventh century to the earliest locomotives in America; from the dynamics of Leonardo da Vinci to the bibliography of the history of engineering and applied science. As a frontispiece there is a reproduction of the earliest known print of a Newcomen engine. This print is not only the earliest drawing, but also the earliest document of any kind known showing the construction of the engine. The original by Henry Beighton was only recently discovered in the Library of Worcester College, Oxford, by Mr. L. de M. Johnson, of the Oxford University Press. Though in the Transactions the drawing has had to be folded, copies can be obtained unfolded, and we think this historical drawing should be exhibited wherever mechanical engineering is taught.

Humphrey potter and newcomen's engine

Humphrey potter and newcomen's engine