Steam Engine - History, The Workings Of A Steam Engine
piston mechanical energy cylinder
A steam engine is a machine that converts the heat energy of steam into mechanical energy by means of a piston moving in a cylinder. As an external combustion engine—since it burns its fuel outside of the engine—a steam engine passes its steam into a cylinder where it then pushes a piston back and forth. It is with this piston movement that the engine can do mechanical work. The steam engine was the major power source of the Industrial Revolution and dominated industry and transportation for 150 years. It is still useful today in certain situations.
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Although the Greeks established the principle of steam power, it lay ignored for over 1,500 years until the late 1600s in Europe. During this long period, the main sources of power were first, human muscle power or draft animals, and later, wind and water power. Windmills and waterwheels were adequate for slow, repetitive jobs like grinding corn, in which an interruption of power was of little con…
Throughout all of this development and improvement of the steam engine, no one really knew the science behind it. Basically, all of this work had been accomplished on an empirical basis without reference to any theory. It was not until 1824 that this situation changed with the publication of Reflexions sur La Puissance Motrice du Feu by the French physicist, Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot (1796-1832)…
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