Newcomen Steam Engine - Precursors

Precursors

Prior to Newcomen a number of small steam devices of various sorts had been made, but most were essentially novelties. Around 1600 a number of experimenters used steam to power small fountains working something on the principle of a coffee percolator. First a container was filled with water, then heated to make it boil; the steam generated displaced the water, forcing it up a pipe that reached down to the bottom of the water so that it spurted out of a nozzle on top of the container. These devices would have been limited in their effectiveness and could only serve to demonstrate a principle.

In 1662 Edward Somerset, second Marquess of Worcester, published a book containing several ideas he had been working on. One was for a steam-powered pump to supply water to fountains; the device alternately used a vacuum and steam pressure. Two containers were alternately filled with steam, then sprayed with cold water making the steam condense; this produced a vacuum that would draw water through a pipe up from a well to the container. A fresh charge of steam under pressure then drove the water from the container up another pipe to a higher-level header before being condensed and repeating the cycle. By working the two containers alternately, delivery rate to the header tank could be increased.