EARLY STEAM ENGINES

                Steam power and steam engines are normally associated with James Watt and George Stephenson. But the story of harnessing power from steam goes long back. Much earlier than inventors like Savory (a military engineer) Newcomen (a blacksmith) Calley (a glazier), Potter (an engine boy) and Smeaton (the builder of Eddystone lighthouse)

                The earliest pioneers were Egyptians and Greeks who were aware of the power of steam and its properties. The first attempt in harnessing the power of steam was by Hero a mathematician. He developed a device using steam power to open the giant doors of Greek temples.

                Hero’s method was ingenious. Fire burning in a hollow alter expands and its pressure and drives the water kept in a bucket beneath the alter. The increased weight makes the bucket to descend thereby pulling a pair of vertical posts on which the doors are pivoted. This action opens the door of the temple. 

                Hero’s invention inspired a host of people notably Branco an Italian in 1547 and Solomon de Caus in 1615. The latter inventors helped in raising water much higher than its source

defying gravity. This was probably the first steam pump.

                But the real spurt in innovation was the contribution of Denis Papin and Thomas Savery in 1698 .Savery invented a new machine which according to his own words was useful for ‘raising of water and occasion motion to all sorts of mill work’.It resembled Papin’s machine and depended on the condensation of steam generated in a separate vessel. Steam was admitted to the condenser alternatively displacing the water it contained and driving it through check valves up a discharge pipe.