[In
the beginning...] [1600-1699]
[1700-1799] [1800-1899]
[1900-1999]
1712: Thomas Newcomen,
in collaboration with Thomas Savery, builds the first practical
steam engine to use a piston and cylinder, bringing the steam
engine out of the lab. It drives a pump in a mine and produces
about 5.5 horsepower.
1753: First steam engine
arrives in the colonies from England.
1753: In England, an Act
of Parliament forbids steam-engine manufacture outside of the
home islands.
1755: First steam engine
in America is installed to pump water from a mine.
1759: John Smeaton publishes the results of his research
on the performance of windmills. He concludes that windmills
cannot compete with the powerful steam engines.
1765: Scottish inventor
James Watt patents the separate condenser.
1769-70: French Army officer,
Captain Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot builds a steam carriage (a steam-powered
military gun tractor). This is considered the first true automobile.
1769: James Watt patents
a practical steam engine.
1774: Englishman James
Watts builds first “modern” stationary steam engine.
1776: With the U.S. Declaration
of Independence and freed of colonial restraints, Americans set
up steam engine manufacturing plants in Boston, Massachusetts
and Gloster, Rhode Island.
1779:First steam powered
mills. Crompton's "mule" combines Hargreaves' and Arkwright's
machines, fully automating the weaving process.
1781-1787: British inventors
James Watt, William Murdock, and William Symington, introduce
several major improvements to steam-powered land vehicles:
- Epicyclic gear for translating piston motion into cyclic
action (1782)
- Differential (1783)
- William Murdoch steam engine model runs 6 to 8 mph (1784)
- Uniflow engine - piston itself acts as the steam valve
and can operate at very high pressures (1786)
- Coiled-spring suspension (1787)
1783: American inventor
Oliver Evans patents the tube boiler. Marked increases in engine
efficiency result.
1784: The first flour mill in
England successfully substituted a steam engine for a wind power.
1786: Arkwright puts a Watt engine
in the Albion cotton mill, Blackfriars Bridge, London.
1787: First steamboat
in America is demonstrated on the Delaware River at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
1790: Oliver Evans applied
for a U.S. patent for a steam land carriage, which he called
the “oruktor amphibolos.”
[In
the beginning...] [1600-1699]
[1700-1799] [1800-1899]
[1900-1999]
