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A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the thermal energy that exists in steam, converting it to mechanical work. Steam engines were used in pumps, locomotive trains and steam ships, and were essential to the Industrial Revolution. They are still used for electrical power generation using steam turbines. A heat engine performs the conversion of heat energy to work by exploiting the temperature gradient between a hot source and a cold sink. Heat is transferred to the sink from the source, and in this process some of the heat is converted into work. ...
Energy is a fundamental quantity that every physical system possesses. ...
In physical chemistry and in engineering, steam refers to vaporized water. ...
Work (abbreviated W) is the energy transferred by a force to a moving object. ...
A pump is a mechanical device used to move liquids or gases. ...
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ...
Paddle steamers - Lucerne-Switzerland Left: original paddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. ...
The Industrial Revolution was the major technological, socioeconomic and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual labor to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. ...
Transmission lines in Lund, Sweden Electric power, often known as power or electricity, involves the production and delivery of electrical energy in sufficient quantities to operate domestic appliances, office equipment, industrial machinery and provide sufficient energy for both domestic and commercial lighting, heating, cooking and industrial processes. ...
A steam turbine extracts the energy of pressurized superheated steam as mechanical movement. ...
A steam engine needs a boiler to boil water to produce steam under pressure. Any heat source can be used, but the most common is a fire fueled by wood, coal, or oil. (However, anything that can be burned can be used as fuel for the fire: paper, trash, used crankcase oil, ground-up corncobs, manure, natural gas, gasoline, high proof alcohol, dry grass, hay, dry weeds, etc.) The steam expands and pushes against a piston or turbine, whose motion does the work of turning wheels or driving other machinery. Water (from the Old English word wæter; c. ...
A red-hot iron rod cooling after being worked by a blacksmith. ...
A large bonfire Fire is a form of combustion. ...
WOOD is a pair of radio stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan owned by Clear Channel on the frequencies of 1300 AM and 105. ...
Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground either by underground mining, open-pit mining or strip mining. ...
Nodding donkey pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario, 2001 Petroleum (from Latin petra – rock and oleum – oil), crude oil, sometimes colloquially called black gold, is a thick, dark brown or greenish flammable liquid, which exists in the upper strata of some areas of the Earths crust. ...
The term steam engine also refers to an entire steam locomotive. Great Western Railway No. ...
Invention The first steam device, the aeolipile, was invented by Heron of Alexandria, a Greek, in the 1st century AD, but used only as a toy. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
A modern replica of Heros aeolipile An illustration of Heros aeolipile A classroom model of an aeolipile An aeolipile is a device consisting of an air-tight chamber (usually a sphere or cylinder) with bent or curved pipes projecting from it, through which steam is expelled. ...
Heros aeolipile Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (c. ...
(1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century - other centuries) The 1st century was that century which lasted from 1 to 100. ...
Denis Papin, a French physicist, built a working model of a steam engine after observing steam escaping from his pressure cooker in about 1679. Sir Samuel Morland also developed ideas for a steam engine during the same period. Early industrial steam engines were designed by Thomas Savery (1698), Thomas Newcomen (1712), and James Watt (1769), each adding new refinements. In 1807, Robert Fulton used the steam engine to power the first commercially successful steamship. Denis Papin (August 22, 1647 - c. ...
Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. ...
Events January 24 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament August 7 - The brigantine Le Griffon, which was commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes. ...
Samuel Morland Sir Samuel Morland (1625 – 30 December 1695) was a notable English academic, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician of the 17th century, a polymath credited with early developments in relation to computing, hydraulics and steam power. ...
Thomas Savery (c. ...
Events January 4 - Palace of Whitehall in London is destroyed by fire. ...
Thomas Newcomen (baptized February 24, 1664 – August 5, 1729), blacksmith and inventor was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England. ...
// Events Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. ...
This article is about the Scottish engineer and inventor. ...
1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
Robert Fulton Fultons monster, the Clermont or North River Steamer Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an US engineer and inventor widely credited with developing the first steam-powered ship. ...
Paddle steamers - Lucerne-Switzerland Left: original paddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. ...
Early engines worked by the vacuum of condensing steam, whereas later types (such as steam locomotives) used the power of expanding steam. This article is about absence of matter. ...
Great Western Railway No. ...
Use and development
 A diagram of Cameron's aero-steam engine, from an 1876 dictionary The first industrial applications of the vacuum engines were in the pumping of water from deep mineshafts. The Newcomen engine operated by admitting steam to the operating chamber, closing the valve, and then admitting a spray of cold water. The water vapor condenses to a much smaller volume of water, creating a vacuum in the chamber. Atmospheric pressure, operating on the opposite side of a piston, pushes the piston to the top of the chamber. In mineshaft pumps, the piston was connected to an operating rod that descended the shaft to a pump chamber. The oscillations of the operating rod are transferred to a pump piston that moves the water, through check valves, to the top of the shaft. Download high resolution version (442x790, 62 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Download high resolution version (442x790, 62 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
The first significant improvement was creation of a separate condensing chamber with a valve between the operating chamber and the condensing chamber. This improvement was discovered in Birmingham, England by James Watt who was a member of the Lunar Society. His discovery and its development increased the efficiency of the engine. The next improvement was the replacement of manually operated valves with valves operated by the engine itself. This article is about the city in England. ...
This article is about the Scottish engineer and inventor. ...
The Lunar Society was a discussion club, of a number of prominent industrialists and scientists, who met regularly in the latter half of the 18th century in Birmingham, England. ...
Such early vacuum, or condensing, engines are severely limited in their efficiency but are relatively safe since the steam is at very low pressure and structural failure of the engine will be by inward collapse rather than an outward explosion. Their power is limited by the ambient air pressure, the displacement of the working chamber, the combustion and evaporations rates, and the condenser capacity. The maximum theoretical efficiency is limited by the relatively low boiling point of water at near atmospheric pressure (100 °C, 212 °F). Further improvements in efficiency came with the use of pressurized steam, which used a far greater pressure, but more importantly (from a thermodynamic standpoint) operates at a higher temperature differential. But with this added pressure came much danger and many disasters due to exploding boilers and machinery. The most important refinement at this point was the safety valve, which releases excess pressure. Reliable and safe operation came only with a great deal of experience and codification of construction, operating, and maintenance procedures.
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
A safety valve is an automatic valve mechanism for the release of a gas from a boiler or other system when the pressure or temperature exceeds preset limits. ...
Technology
Boilers
 Richard Trevithick's No. 14 engine, built by Hazeldine and Co., Bridgnorth, about 1804, and illustrated after being rescued circa 1885; from Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XIX, No. 470, Jan. 3, 1885. Now on display in the National Museum of Science and Industry (The Science Museum), London. Boilers are of two types: Download high resolution version (1200x778, 239 KB)Richard Trevithicks high-pressure steam engine, from Scientific American Supplement, Vol. ...
Download high resolution version (1200x778, 239 KB)Richard Trevithicks high-pressure steam engine, from Scientific American Supplement, Vol. ...
Richard Trevithick. ...
Scientific American is one of the oldest and most serious popular-science magazines. ...
- Fire tube construction is typical of early maritime installations for boats and ships and the boilers of steam locomotives. In a fire tube boiler, the hot gases from the firebox (a combustion chamber) are passed through tubes connecting perforated end plates. The gases then enter a smokebox or smoke chest and pass on to a smokestack. The boiler may be vertical or horizontal. For an example of a vertical boiler of this type observe the boiler in the small riverboat used in the movie The African Queen. This type is also used in some boilers that provide steam for steam heating of a building and was also used in the steam shovel. Locomotives and early ships used a horizontal orientation and early ships would usually require a tall smokestack to provide draft, not having a fan to provide a forced draft. In a steam locomotive the draft is generally augmented at startup by directing the steam exhaust through the smokestack, which provides a partial vacuum.
- In a water tube boiler the water is heated in multiple tubes exposed to the hot gases. The tubes are joined to a steam collector chamber at the top. A significant advantage of this type is that there is less chance of catastrophic failure, as there is not a great amount of water in the boiler, nor are there large mechanical elements subject to failure. There may be additional tubes above the collector in the upper portion of the hot gas exhaust - this device, called a superheater, provides additional temperature (and hence pressure) and increases the thermal efficiency of the entire mechanism. Superheaters were also used in some of the later versions of the steam locomotive.
There is also another division between boilers: natural aspiration, which is nearly all of them, and forced-draft, or "pressure-fired" boilers. This technology, equivalent to supercharging for an internal combustion engine, was developed by the Germans and acquired by the US Navy to be used in some frigates built after the Second World War. In it, a fan is used to increase the rate of burning; the boiler must be constructed to get that extra heat to the water. An engine using this kind of boiler has the greatest acceleration from a standing start of any marine powerplant. In a steam engine, the firebox is the area where the fuel is burned, producing heat to boil the water in the boiler. ...
A first class tourist riverboat High speed planing riverboat High speed hydrofoil riverboat Local passenger transport craft Riverboat specialized for cargo truck transport Self propelled gravel barge M.V. Splendid China layout A riverboat is a specialized watercraft (vessel) designed for operating on inland waterways. ...
Categories: Movie stubs | 1951 films | AFI 100 Movies | AFI 100 Passions | World War I films | Best Actor Oscar (film) | Best Actress Oscar Nominee (film) | United States National Film Registry ...
Categories: Stub | Industrial equipment ...
General arrangement of a superheater installation in a steam locomotive. ...
Engines High pressure steam engines are of various types but most are either reciprocating piston or turbine devices. WWII era steam turbine used for ship propulsion. ...
Reciprocating
Double-acting After the development of pressurized steam technology, the next major advance was to the use of double-acting pistons, with pressurized steam admitted alternately to each side while the other side is exhausted to the atmosphere or to a condenser. Most reciprocating engines now use use this technology. Power is removed by a sliding rod, sealed against the escape of steam. This rod in turn drives (via a sliding crosshead bearing) a connecting rod connected to a crank to convert the reciprocating motion to rotary motion. An additional crank or eccentric is used to drive the valve gear, usually through a reversing mechanism to allow reversal of the rotary motion. A crosshead bearing (or simply crosshead) is used in large reciprocating engines, whether internal combustion engines or steam engines. ...
piston + connecting rod In a reciprocal piston engine, the connecting rod or con rod connects the piston to the crankshaft. ...
A crank is a bent portion of an axle, or shaft, or an arm keyed at right angles to the end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. ...
(This page refers to eccitricity in mechanical engineering. ...
When a pair of double acting pistons is used, their crank phasing is offset by 90 degrees of angle; this is called quartering. This ensures that the engine will always operate, no matter what position the crank is in.
Some ferryboats have used only a single double-acting piston, driving paddlewheels on each side by connection to an overhead rocker arm. When shutting down such an engine it was important that the piston be away from either extreme range of its travel so that it could be readily restarted.
Multiple expansion
 Model of a triple expansion engine Another type uses multiple (typically three) single-acting cylinders of progressively increasing diameter and stroke (and hence volume). Download high resolution version (1024x768, 124 KB)Model of a triple expansion steam engine locatated in a museum at Monterey, California. ...
Download high resolution version (1024x768, 124 KB)Model of a triple expansion steam engine locatated in a museum at Monterey, California. ...
High pressure steam from the boiler is used to drive the first and smallest diameter piston downward. On the upward stroke the partially expanded steam is driven into a second cylinder that is beginning its downward stroke. This accomplishes further expansion of the relatively high pressure exhaust from the first chamber. Similarly, the intermediate chamber exhausts to the final chamber, which in turn exhausts to a condenser. The term condenser has the following meanings: In electronics, it is another (old-fashioned) word for capacitor. ...
The image at the right shows a model of such an engine. The steam travels through the engine from left to right. The valve chest for each of the first two cylinders is to the left of the corresponding cylinder while that of the third is to the right.
One modification of the triple-expansion engine is to use two smaller pistons that sum to the area of the third piston to replace it. This results in the more balanced unit of a total of four pistons arranged in a vee-configuration.
The development of this type of engine was important for its use in steamships, for the condenser would, by taking back a little of the power, turn the steam back to water for its reuse in the boiler. Land-based steam engines could exhaust much of their steam and be refilled from a fresh water tower, but at sea this was not possible. This sort of engine dominated merchant marine applications prior to and during World War II. It even was used in warships before the HMS Dreadnought of 1905. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: Immense human sacrifice, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons - the atom bomb being the ultimate. ...
The sixth HMS Dreadnought of the British Royal Navy was the first battleship to have a uniform main battery, rather than having a secondary battery of similar sized guns. ...
1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
Uniflow Another type of reciprocating steam engine is the "uniflow'' type. In this, valves (which act similarly to those used in internal combustion engines) are operated by cams. The inlet valves open to admit steam when minimum expansion volume has been reached a the top of the stroke. For a period of the crank cycle steam is admitted and the poppet inlet are then closed, allowing continued expansion of the steam during the downstroke. Near the bottom of the stroke the piston will expose exhaust ports in the side of the cylindrical chamber. These ports are connected by a manifold and piping to the condenser, lowering the pressure in the chamber to below that of the atmosphere. Continued rotation of the crank moves the piston upward. Engines of this type always have multiple cylinders in an inline arrangement and may be single or double acting. A particular advantage of this type is that the valves may be operated by the effect of multiple camshafts, and by changing the relative phase of these camshafts, the amount of steam admitted may be increased for high torque at low speed and may be decreased at cruising speed for economy of operation, and by changing the absolute phase the engine's direction of rotation may be changed. The uniflow design also maintains a constant temperature gradient through the cylinder, avoiding passing hot and cold steam through the same end of the cylinder. (The uniflow concept is also employed in two stroke supercharged diesel engines used for marine, locomotive, and stationary applications. Such diesels do not need the economizer feature and use a simpler sliding camshaft for reversing.) A supercharger (also known as a blower, a positive displacement pump or a centrifugal pumper) is a gas compressor used to pump air into the cylinders of an internal combustion engine. ...
Turbine type Steam turbines for high power applications will use a number of rotating disks containing propeller-like blades at their outer edge. These moving "rotor" disks alternate with stationary "stator" blade rings affixed to the turbine case that serve to redirect the steam flow for the next stage. Owing to the high speed of operation such turbines are usually connected to a reduction gear to drive another mechanism such as a ship's propeller. Steam turbines are more durable, smoother operating, and require far less maintenance than reciprocating engines. A limited number of steam locomotives were manufactured that used turbine technology. While these engines had the typical rods connecting the drive wheels they had no driving rods or cylinders, and no valve links or reversing gear, appearing strangely incomplete to most observers. (This locomotive was modeled by Lionel but proved unpopular due to its simple appearance — modelers preferred the complexity and excited motion of the more conventional types). This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Rotary type The Quasiturbine is a recent concept of rotary steam engine, with the mechanical concept also applicable as an internal combustion engine. The Quasiturbine combustion cycle: Intake (aqua), Compression (fuchsia), Ignition (red), Exhaust (black). ...
Steam powered vehicles
 The 1923 Stanley Steam Car Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated the first functional self-propelled steam vehicle, his "steam wagon", in 1769. Arguably, this was the first automobile. While not generally successful as a transportation device, the self-propelled steam tractor proved very useful as a self mobile power source to drive other farm machinery such as grain threshers or hay balers. The 1923 Stanley Steam Car. ...
The 1923 Stanley Steam Car. ...
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (25 September 1725 - 2 October 1804) was a French inventor who built what may have been the worlds first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile. ...
1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ...
The thrashing machine, or, in modern spelling, threshing machine, was a machine invented by Scottish mechanical engineer Andrew Meikle for use in agriculture. ...
A Round Baler A baler is a piece of farm machinery that is used to compress a cut, raked, crop (such as hay or straw) into bales and bind the bales with twine. ...
Steam engine powered automobiles continued to compete with other motive systems into the early decades of the 20th century. However steam engines are less favored for automobiles, which are generally powered by internal combustion engines, because steam requires at least thirty seconds (in a flash boiler) or so to develop pressure. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...
A colorized automobile engine An internal combustion engine is an engine that is powered by the expansion of hot combustion products of fuel directly acting within an engine. ...
On February 21, 1804 at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales, the first self-propelled railway steam engine or steam locomotive built by Richard Trevithick was demonstrated. February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
National motto: Cymru am byth (Welsh: Wales for ever) Waless location within the UK Official languages English(100%), Welsh(20. ...
Richard Trevithick. ...
Advantages The strength of the steam engine for modern purposes is in its ability to convert heat from almost any source into mechanical work. Unlike the internal combustion engine, the steam engine is not particular about the source of heat. Most notably, without the use of a steam engine nuclear energy could not be harnessed for useful work, as a nuclear reactor does not directly generate either mechanical work or electrical energy - the reactor itself simply heats water. It is the steam engine which converts the heat energy into useful work. Steam may also be produced without combustion of fuel, through solar concentrators. A demonstration power plant has been built using a central heat collecting tower and a large number of solar tracking mirrors, (called heliostats). See also Nuclear power for the commercial production of electricty from nuclear energy. ...
Nuclear power station at Leibstadt, Switzerland. ...
A Heliostat is a device that tracks the movement of the sun. ...
Similar advantages are found in a different type of external combustion engine, the Stirling engine, which offers efficient power in a compact engine, but which is difficult to operate over a wide range of operating conditions, difficulties which are readily addressed by the modern hybrid vehicle. A Stirling engine and generator set with 55 kW electrical output, for combined heat and power applications. ...
Honda Insight, a hybrid gas-electric vehicle 2004 Toyota Prius, a hybrid gas-electric vehicle A hybrid vehicle uses multiple energy sources or propulsion systems to provide motive power. ...
Steam locomotives are especially advantageous at high elevations as they are not especially adversely affected by the lower atmospheric pressure. This was inadvertently discovered when steam engines operated at high altitudes in the mountains of South America were replaced by diesel-electric engines of equivalent sea level power. They were quickly replaced by much more powerful locomotives capable of producing sufficient power at high altitude.
In Switzerland (Brienz Rothhorn) and Austria (Schafberg Bahn) new rack steam locomotives have proved very successful. They were designed based a 1930s design of Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) but with all of today's possible improvements like roller bearings, heat insulation, light-oil firing, improved inner streamlining, one-man-driving and so on. These resulted in 60 percent lower fuel consumption per passenger and massively reduced costs for maintenance and handling. Economics now are similar or better than with most advanced diesel or electric systems. Also a steam train with similar speed and capacity is 50 percent lighter than an electric or diesel train, thus, especially on rack railways, significantly reducing wear and tear on the track. Also, a new steam engine for a paddle steam ship on Lake Geneva, the "Montreux" was designed and built, being the world's first ship steam engine with an electronic remote control. The steam group of SLM in 2000 created a wholly-owned company called DLM to design modern steam engines and steam locomotives.
Efficiency Clearly, no pure heat engine can be more efficient than the Carnot cycle, where the efficiency depends on the temperature difference. Hence, steam engines should ideally be operated at the highest steam temperature possible, and release the waste heat at the lowest temperature possible. A heat engine is an engine that uses heat to produce mechanical work by carrying a working substance through a cyclic process. ...
In practice, a steam engine exhausting the steam to atmosphere will have an efficiency (including the boiler) of 5% but with the addition of a condenser the efficiency is greatly improved to 25% or better. A power station with exhaust reheat, etc. will achieve 30% efficiency. Combined cycle in which the burning material is first used to drive a gas turbine can produce 60% efficiency, and cogeneration in which the residual steam is used for heating can produce up to 90% efficiency; beating the Carnot cycle by a comfortable margin. The term condenser has the following meanings: In electronics, it is another (old-fashioned) word for capacitor. ...
In a combined cycle power plant, a gas turbine generator is combined with a steam turbine power plant with the objective to increase the efficiency of electricity generation. ...
This machine has a single-stage radial compressor and turbine, a recuperator, and foil bearings. ...
Cogeneration (also combined heat and power or CHP) is the use of a power station to simultaneously generate both heat and electricity. ...
One source of inefficiency is that the condenser causes losses by being somewhat hotter than the outside world, although this can be mitigated by condensing the steam in a heat exchanger and using the recovered heat, for example to pre-heat the air being used in the burner of an external combustion engine. A heat exchanger is a device for transferring heat from one fluid to another, where the fluids are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix. ...
The operation of the engine portion alone is not dependent upon steam; any pressurised gas may be used. Compressed air is sometimes used to test or demonstrate small model "steam" engines.
See also Steam power developed slowly over a period of several hundred years, progressing through expensive and fairly limited devices in the early 1600s, to useful pumps for mining in 1700, and then to Watts improved designs in the late 1700s. ...
Diagram of the Newcomen steam engine Thomas Newcomens atmospheric engine, today referred to as a Newcomen steam engine, was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. ...
Diagram of the Watt Steam Engine The Watt steam engine was the next great step in the development of the steam engine after the Newcomen engine. ...
During the Industrial Revolution, steam power displaced water power and muscle power (which often came from horses) as the primary source of power in use in industry. ...
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. ...
A steam donkey is type of stationary steam engine historically used during logging operations to haul logs to a log-landing. ...
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ...
A crosshead bearing (or simply crosshead) is used in large reciprocating engines, whether internal combustion engines or steam engines. ...
The 1923 Stanley Steam Car A steam car is a car that has a steam engine. ...
The Stanley Steamer was a steam-powered automobile produced by the Stanley Steamer Company which set the world land speed record at 127. ...
Mamod live steam locomotive and train on a garden railway layout Live steam is steam under pressure, obtained by heating water in a boiler. ...
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