Newcomen, Thomas (1663) - Essay Example

He married only in 1705 at the age of forty-two years, after which he frequently hosted meetings at his home for dedicated Baptists. At the same time, he took great interest in the mining industry and the problem of the mines flooding frequently (Baker 278). growing coal mining industry; he also visited tin mines. From the miners he came to know that there was a requirement for a machine to remove water from the deep mines. Some of the mine shafts extending under the sea got filled with water seepage and had to be pumped out.

The miners did not have access to large streams that could be used for powering water wheels, and draft animals were not strong enough to pull the water up from the great depths (Kras 22). Thomas Newcomen’s earliest experiments are not documented, because he did not belong to a group of inventors, and he did not have a wealthy patron to promote his work (Kras 23). The results of his experiments led him to design and build the first really usable steam engine. “Though it was hampered by high fuel consumption and frequent breakdowns, Newcomen’s engine became only the second self-acting machine in history (after clocks)” states Shectman (p.xxix). Even more significantly, it became the first source of energy not known since antiquity.

Newcomen’s machine was entirely propelled by atmospheric pressure. A blast of steam at greater than atmospheric pressure was forced to the bottom of a brass cylinder which held the engine’s piston. According to Marshall (p.18), Newcomen created a vacuum as the steam cooled, thereby drawing down the piston as well as one arm of the heavy beam to which it was attached. The other arm of the heavy beam rose up to work the pump. After this, a jet of cold water was injected to rapidly condense the steam.

The vacuum created caused the pressure of the atmosphere to slam the piston downwards, producing a