-
1 Savery, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. c. 1650 probably Shilston, near Modbury, Devonshire, Englandd. c. 15 May 1715 London, England[br]English inventor of a partially successful steam-driven pump for raising water.[br]Little is known of the early years of Savery's life and no trace has been found that he served in the Army, so the title "Captain" is thought to refer to some mining appointment, probably in the West of England. He may have been involved in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, for later he was well known to William of Orange. From 1705 to 1714 he was Treasurer for Sick and Wounded Seamen, and in 1714 he was appointed Surveyor of the Water Works at Hampton Court, a post he held until his death the following year. He was interested in mechanical devices; amongst his early contrivances was a clock.He was the most prolific inventor of his day, applying for seven patents, including one in 1649, for polishing plate glass which may have been used. His idea for 1697 for propelling ships with paddle-wheels driven by a capstan was a failure, although regarded highly by the King, and was published in his first book, Navigation Improved (1698). He tried to patent a new type of floating mill in 1707, and an idea in 1710 for baking sea coal or other fuel in an oven to make it clean and pure.His most famous invention, however, was the one patented in 1698 "for raising water by the impellent force of fire" that Savery said would drain mines or low-lying land, raise water to supply towns or houses, and provide a source of water for turning mills through a water-wheel. Basically it consisted of a receiver which was first filled with steam and then cooled to create a vacuum by having water poured over the outside. The water to be pumped was drawn into the receiver from a lower sump, and then high-pressure steam was readmitted to force the water up a pipe to a higher level. It was demonstrated to the King and the Royal Society and achieved some success, for a few were installed in the London area and a manufactory set up at Salisbury Court in London. He published a book, The Miner's Friend, about his engine in 1702, but although he made considerable improvements, due to excessive fuel consumption and materials which could not withstand the steam pressures involved, no engines were installed in mines as Savery had hoped. His patent was extended in 1699 until 1733 so that it covered the atmospheric engine of Thomas Newcomen who was forced to join Savery and his other partners to construct this much more practical engine.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1706.Bibliography1698, Navigation Improved.1702, The Miner's Friend.Further ReadingThe entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (1897, Vol. L, London: Smith Elder \& Co.) has been partially superseded by more recent research. The Transactions of the Newcomen Society contain various papers; for example, Rhys Jenkins, 1922–3, "Savery, Newcomen and the early history of the steam engine", Vol. 3; A.Stowers, 1961–2, "Thomas Newcomen's first steam engine 250 years ago and the initial development of steam power", Vol. 34; A.Smith, 1977–8, "Steam and the city: the committee of proprietors of the invention for raising water by fire", 1715–1735, Vol. 49; and J.S.P.Buckland, 1977–8, "Thomas Savery, his steam engine workshop of 1702", Vol. 49. Brief accounts may be found in H.W. Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press, and R.L. Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press. There is another biography in T.I. Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.Black.RLH -
2 Newcomen, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. January or February 1663 Dartmouth, Devon, Englandd. 5 August 1729 London, England[br]English inventor and builder of the world's first successful stationary steam-engine.[br]Newcomen was probably born at a house on the quay at Dartmouth, Devon, England, the son of Elias Newcomen and Sarah Trenhale. Nothing is known of his education, and there is only dubious evidence of his apprenticeship to an ironmonger in Exeter. He returned to Dartmouth and established himself there as an "ironmonger". The term "ironmonger" at that time meant more than a dealer in ironmongery: a skilled craftsman working in iron, nearer to today's "blacksmith". In this venture he had a partner, John Calley or Caley, who was a plumber and glazier. Besides running his business in Dartmouth, it is evident that Newcomen spent a good deal of time travelling round the mines of Devon and Cornwall in search of business.Eighteenth-century writers and others found it impossible to believe that a provincial ironmonger could have invented the steam-engine, the concept of which had occupied the best scientific brains in Europe, and postulated a connection between Newcomen and Savery or Papin, but scholars in recent years have failed to find any evidence of this. Certainly Savery was in Dartmouth at the same time as Newcomen but there is nothing to indicate that they met, although it is possible. The most recent biographer of Thomas Newcomen is of the opinion that he was aware of Savery and his work, that the two men had met by 1705 and that, although Newcomen could have taken out his own patent, he could not have operated his own engines without infringing Savery's patent. In the event, they came to an agreement by which Newcomen was enabled to sell his engines under Savery's patent.The first recorded Newcomen engine is dated 1712, although this may have been preceded by a good number of test engines built at Dartmouth, possibly following a number of models. Over one hundred engines were built to Newcomen's design during his lifetime, with the first engine being installed at the Griff Colliery near Dudley Castle in Staffordshire.On the death of Thomas Savery, on 15 May 1715, a new company, the Proprietors of the Engine Patent, was formed to carry on the business. The Company was represented by Edward Elliot, "who attended the Sword Blade Coffee House in Birchin Lane, London, between 3 and 5 o'clock to receive enquiries and to act as a contact for the committee". Newcomen was, of course, a member of the Proprietors.A staunch Baptist, Newcomen married Hannah Waymouth, who bore him two sons and a daughter. He died, it is said of a fever, in London on 5 August 1729 and was buried at Bunhill Fields.[br]Further ReadingL.T.C.Rolt and J.S.Allen, 1977, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen, Hartington: Moorland Publishing Company (the definitive account of his life and work).IMcN -
3 Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Clement, JosephDu ShiDu YuGongshu PanLi BingMa JunMurdock, WilliamSomerset, EdwardBiographical history of technology > Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering
-
4 Papin, Denis
SUBJECT AREA: Domestic appliances and interiors[br]b. 22 August 1647 Blois, Loire et Cher, Franced. 1712 London, England[br]French mathematician and physicist, inventor of the pressure-cooker.[br]Largely educated by his father, he worked for some time for Huygens at Ley den, then for a time in London where he assisted Robert Boyle with his experiments on the air pump. He supposedly invented the double-acting air pump. He travelled to Venice and worked there for a time, but was back in London in 1684 before taking up the position of Professor of Mathematics at the University of Marburg (in 1669 or 1670 he became a Doctor of Medicine at Angers), where he remained from 1687 to 1695. Then followed a period at Cassel, where he was employed by the Duke of Hesse. In this capacity he was much involved in the application of steam-power to pumping water for the Duke's garden fountains. Papin finally returned to London in 1707. He is best known for his "digester", none other than the domestic pressure-cooker. John Evelyn describes it in his diary (12 April 1682): "I went this Afternoone to a Supper, with severall of the R.Society, which was all dressed (both fish and flesh) in Monsieur Papins Digestorie; by which the hardest bones of Biefe itself, \& Mutton, were without water, or other liquor, \& with less than 8 ounces of Coales made as soft as Cheeze, produc'd an incredible quantity of Gravie…. This Philosophical Supper raised much mirth among us, \& exceedingly pleased all the Companie." The pressure-cooker depends on the increase in the boiling point of water with increase of pressure. To avoid the risk of the vessel exploding, Papin devised a weight-loaded lever-type safety valve.There are those who would claim that Papin preceded Newcomen as the true inventor of the steam engine. There is no doubt that as early as 1690 Papin had the idea of an atmospheric engine, in which a piston in a cylinder is forced upwards by expanding steam and then returned by the weight of the atmosphere upon the piston, but he lacked practical engineering skill such as was necessary to put theory into practice. The story is told of his last trip from Cassel, when returning to England. It is said that he built his own steamboat, intending to make the whole journey by this means, ending with a triumphal journey up the Thames. However, boatmen on the river Weser, thinking that the steamboat threatened their livelihood, attacked it and broke it up. Papin had to travel by more orthodox means. Papin is said to have co-operated with Thomas Savery in the development of the lat-ter's steam engine, on which he was working c. 1705.[br]Further ReadingCharles-Armand Klein, 1987, Denis Papin: Illustre savant blaisois, Chambray, France: CLD.A.P.M.Fleming and H.R.S.Brocklehurst, 1925, A History of Engineering.Sigvar Strandh, 1979, Machines, Mitchell Beazley.IMcN -
5 Porta, Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) della
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. between 3 October and 15 November 1535 Vico Equense, near Naples, Italyd. 4 February 1615 Naples, Italy[br]Italian natural philosopher who published many scientific books, one of which covered ideas for the use of steam.[br]Giambattista della Porta spent most of his life in Naples, where some time before 1580 he established the Accademia dei Segreti, which met at his house. In 1611 he was enrolled among the Oziosi in Naples, then the most renowned literary academy. He was examined by the Inquisition, which, although he had become a lay brother of the Jesuits by 1585, banned all further publication of his books between 1592 and 1598.His first book, the Magiae Naturalis, which covered the secrets of nature, was published in 1558. He had been collecting material for it since the age of 15 and he saw that science should not merely represent theory and contemplation but must arrive at practical and experimental expression. In this work he described the hardening of files and pieces of armour on quite a large scale, and it included the best sixteenth-century description of heat treatment for hardening steel. In the 1589 edition of this work he covered ways of improving vision at a distance with concave and convex lenses; although he may have constructed a compound microscope, the history of this instrument effectively begins with Galileo. His theoretical and practical work on lenses paved the way for the telescope and he also explored the properties of parabolic mirrors.In 1563 he published a treatise on cryptography, De Furtivis Liter arum Notis, which he followed in 1566 with another on memory and mnemonic devices, Arte del Ricordare. In 1584 and 1585 he published treatises on horticulture and agriculture based on careful study and practice; in 1586 he published De Humana Physiognomonia, on human physiognomy, and in 1588 a treatise on the physiognomy of plants. In 1593 he published his De Refractione but, probably because of the ban by the Inquisition, no more were produced until the Spiritali in 1601 and his translation of Ptolemy's Almagest in 1605. In 1608 two new works appeared: a short treatise on military fortifications; and the De Distillatione. There was an important work on meteorology in 1610. In 1601 he described a device similar to Hero's mechanisms which opened temple doors, only Porta used steam pressure instead of air to force the water out of its box or container, up a pipe to where it emptied out into a higher container. Under the lower box there was a small steam boiler heated by a fire. He may also have been the first person to realize that condensed steam would form a vacuum, for there is a description of another piece of apparatus where water is drawn up into a container at the top of a long pipe. The container was first filled with steam so that, when cooled, a vacuum would be formed and water drawn up into it. These are the principles on which Thomas Savery's later steam-engine worked.[br]Further ReadingDictionary of Scientific Biography, 1975, Vol. XI, New York: C.Scribner's Sons (contains a full biography).H.W.Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (contains an account of his contributions to the early development of the steam-engine).C.Singer (ed.), 1957, A History of Technology, Vol. III, Oxford University Press (contains accounts of some of his other discoveries).I.Asimov (ed.), 1982, Biographical Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology, 2nd edn., New York: Doubleday.G.Sarton, 1957, Six wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance, London: Bodley Head, pp. 85–8.RLH / IMcNBiographical history of technology > Porta, Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) della
См. также в других словарях:
Savery, Thomas — ▪ British engineer and inventor born c. 1650, , Shilstone, Devonshire, Eng. died 1715, London English engineer and inventor who built the first steam engine. A military engineer by profession, Savery was drawn in the 1690s to the… … Universalium
Thomas Savery — Thomas Savery. Thomas Savery (1650 1715) fue un mecánico e inventor inglés que desarrolló una máquina de vapor que en su época constituyó un gran avance en la industria minera. A finales del siglo XVII, las aguas subterráneas suponían un grave… … Wikipedia Español
Thomas Savery — Infobox Engineer |165px image size = caption = name = Thomas Savery nationality = English birth date = c. 1650 birth place = Modbury, Devon, England death date = 1715 death place = education = spouse = parents = children = discipline =… … Wikipedia
Thomas Savery — Die Dampfpumpe von Thomas Savery … Deutsch Wikipedia
Thomas Savery — (vers 1650 Shilstone, un manoir près de Modbury, Devon – 1715) est un mécanicien anglais, inventeur de différents procédés industriels lors de la Révolution financière britannique, puis constructeur de machines à vapeur. Il a travaillé pour la… … Wikipédia en Français
Thomas Newcomen — (* 26. Februar 1663 in Dartmouth; † 5. August 1729 in London) war ein englischer Erfinder. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Literatur 3 Einzelnachweise … Deutsch Wikipedia
Savery — is a surname, and may refer to:* Henry Savery (1791 1842), Australian novelist * Jan Savery (1589 1654), Flemish painter * Joe Savery (born 1985), baseball pitcher * Nigel Savery (21st century), geneticist * Roelant Savery (1576 1639), Flanders… … Wikipedia
Thomas Newcomen — est un mécanicien anglais, né le 24 février 1664 à Dartmouth (Devon, Angleterre), décédé le 5 août 1729. Principe de la machine à vapeur à balancier de Newcomen La région du Devon était riche en étain et de nombreuses mines y étaient exploitées.… … Wikipédia en Français
Savery — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Roelant Savery (1576–1639), niederländischer Maler Thomas Savery (1650–1715), englischer Ingenieur und Erfinder Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit d … Deutsch Wikipedia
Thomas Newcomen — (bautizado el 24 de febrero de 1664 5 de agosto de 1729), herrero e inventor, nació en Darthmouth, Devon, Inglaterra. Es frecuentemente citado como el padre de la revolución industrial como su primer innovador y empresario. En 1712 Newcomen, con… … Enciclopedia Universal
Thomas Newcomen — Animation of a schematic Newcomen steam engine. – Steam is shown pink and water is blue. – Valves move from open (green) to closed (red) Thomas Newcomen (shortly before 24 February 1664 –[1] 5 August 1729) was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist … Wikipedia
