EARLY HISTORY. The first instance of the use of steam as a motive power is generally as sumed to have been the a'olipile of Hero of Alexandria (q.v.). As early as 1513 a Span ish captain, named Blasco de Garay, is reputed to have shown in the harbor of Barcelona a steamboat of his own invention. A French en gineer, Salomon de Cans, describes in 1615 a steam machine, which was merely a contrivance for forcing the water contained in a copper hall through a tube by applying heat. An Italian engineer, Giovanni Branca, invented, in 1629, a sort of steam windmill; the steam, being gener ated in a boiler, was directed by a spout against the flat vanes of a wheel, which was thus set in motion. See STEAM TURBINE.
In England the first successful effort was that of the Marquis of Worcester, who, in 1663, de scribes a steam apparatus by which he raised a column of water to the height of 40 feet. The first patent for the application of steam power to various kinds of machines was taken out in 169S by Thomas Savery. His engines"' were the first used and seem to have been employed for some years in the drainage of mines in Cornwall and Devonshire. The essential improvement ill them over the older ones was the use of a boiler sep arate from the vessel in which the steam did its work.
To Denis Papin„ a celebrated Frenchman. is due the idea. of the piston.
The next. great step in advance was made about 1705 in the 'atmospheric' engine, conjointly invented by Neweomen. Caney, and Savery. In
this engine, which is shown in Fig. 1. the pre vious inventions of the separate boiler and of the cylinder with its movable steam-tight pis ton are utilized, although in a new form. The 'beam,' which has ever sines been in use in pump ing engines, was used for the first time, and for the first time also the condensation of the steam was made an instantaneous proeess. instead of a slow and gradual one. To one end of a beam moving on an axis, I, attached the roll, N, of the pump to be worked: to the other. the roll, M, of a piston moving in a cylinder, C, below.
The cylinder was placed over a boiler, B, and was connected with it by a pipe provided with a stop-cock, V, to cut off or admit the steam. Suppose the pump-rod depressed, and the piston raised to the top of the cylinder—which was ef fected by weights suspended at the pump end of the beam—the steam cock was then turned to cut off the steam, and a dash of cold water was thrown into the cylinder by turning a cock, R, was used as a condenser. The principal improve ments since have been either in matters relating to the boiler or in details of construction conse quent on increased facilities, improved machin ery, and greater knowledge of the strength of materials.