Left: Ctesibius’ aeolipile (c.250BC), shown hooked up to a weight raising device, the earliest known type of steam-making type of heat engine. Right: the Papin engine (1690), the prototype of all modern day “steam engines”, and forerunner to the combustion engine. |
See main: History of the steam engineIn 235BC, Archimedes, according to da Vinci (c.1500), invented a architronito, or steam-powered cannon that throws 70lb iron balls, via the action of “great noise and fury”, at the enemy, by the action of heat derived from burning coals; diagrams of which are found in da Vinci’s notebooks; the gist of which is diagrammed as follows: [9]
A depiction of the temple door steam engine built by Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria, in circa 50AD, the first working heat engine. |
1. Siphon, which he says is older than Hero.
2. Operation by capillary attraction.
3. By the aid of fire.
4. Action of compressed air, as illustrated by Hero's fountain, and ascribed to Hero.
5. Animal labor applied to machinery, such as the screw of Archimedes, or the pump of Ctesibius.
The operation is such that globe a is filled with water, which has a valve b attached, for adding water, and a tube c soldered into the upper part of the bulb, with a valve, the operation of which being such that, when fire is put under the globe, water shoots out of the tube c, like a fountain.
See main: Timeline of thermodynamics; Engine development timelineIn 1645, in an effort to disprove Greek philosopher Parmenides's 485BC postulate that nature abhors a vacuum (horror vacui), German engineer Otto Guericke invented (or began to use) a piston and cylinder (1645), vacuum pump (1647), and the Magdeburg hemispheres (1654); and with these instruments, Guericke showed that it was possible, manually, to create a vacuum or to remove the air from a sealed volume.
A diagram of a comparison of the Papin engine, Newcomen engine, and Watt engine. [12] |
“Papin had a piston in a cylinder in which he boiled his water, afterwards condensing the steam slowly in the same vessel. Newcomen generated his steam in a vessel separate from the cylinder, but still condensed the steam rapidly in the cylinder itself. Watt made use of a boiler and a cylinder like Newcomen, but condensed the steam rapidly in an entirely separate vessel.”— Henry Dickinson (1939), A Short History of the Steam Engine (pg. 67)