HPS282S - HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING
Spring 1998
The Steam Engine
26 February 1998
I. Coal and the rise of fossil fuels
A. Possible reasons for increase of coal production in Britain: British Advantages and Disadvantages
1. The geological endowment of Britain
2. Early use of coal in Britain
3. The wood shortage: The stimulus of limits?
B. Modifications in technics attendant on coal usage
1. Heating
2. Drying and Evaporation for industrial purposes
3. Melting and Smelting
a) Glass Industry
(1) Problems of discoloration
(2) Tacit knowledge in the handling of coal
b) Reverberatory Furnace
(1) Indirect heat from hot coal fires
c) Smelting Iron
(1) The use of coke by Abraham Darby 1709
(2) May have been preceded by Ned Dudley in late 17c
C. New technological demands
1. Increase in coal mining
2. Increasing depths of mines and need to deal with drainage
II. The Legacy of Waterpower
A. Persistence of Waterpower in both Britain and US
1. 1820 US 100 waterwheels/steam engine
2. 1800 1500 steam engines (se) in GB @ ca. 15HP each
a) Total of about 20-35,000hp or about fifth of 170,000 total inanimate horsepower
3. 1850 750,000hp in GB locomotives vs. ca. 500,000 in mfg.
a) Main effect seems to be in transportation
4. 1850 US 181,000hp from steam power vs. 2.5M hp total (ca. 7%)
5. 1870 Steam nudges out water from 1st place in US and in GB
6. Most steam power used in mining in 1800 GB
a) 50% mining
b) 4% pumping (town supplies)
c) 12% metallurgy (also mostly pumping)
d) 21% textiles
e) 5% food-processing
7. Only after 1830 were the "social savings" of steam power significant in GB (period of the end of the Classical IR)
8. In 1752 a Newcomen engine is used to drive a waterwheel
9. The Message: It takes about a century to bring in a energy technology. Applicable for new technologies today?
III. Precursors to Watt
A. Heron (1st c. A.D.) and Denis Papin (1647-1712)
B. Thomas Newcomen (1633-1729) and his engine
C. John Smeaton: The Achievements and Limits of Good Engineering
IV. James Watt (1736-1819) and his Steam Engine
A. Early Career
B. Links with science
C. Watt's great insight: The separate condenser
D. Watt's other achievements
1. Flyball governor
2. Parallel linkage
3. Double-acting engine
4. Sun and Planet Gear
a) Rotary Engine (failed)
V. Matthew Boulton's contribution
A. The patent battle
B. The sale of power
C. The spread of the steam engine
VI. Impact of Watt on British Society
A. Effect on economy
B. Psychological Effects
1. Rythm and Regularity
2. Inexorable Materialism
a) Novelty and the Gospel of Steam
C. Social effects
1. Concentration of production
2. The role of the factory
3. Increasing urbanization
a) The role of the railway
D. Technological Effects
1. Watt's technological conservatism
