Who created 1 steam engine. The history of the steam engine and its application. Inventions of Thomas Newcomen

Polzunov, Ivan Ivanovich

- a mechanic who arranged the first steam engine in Russia; the son of a soldier of the Yekaterinburg mining companies, ten years old he entered the Yekaterinburg arithmetic school, where he completed the course with the title of a mechanical student. Among several young people, Polzunov was sent to Barnaul to the state-owned mining factories, where in 1763 he was a chief master. Being engaged in the construction of machines with water engines used in smelters and mines, Polzunov drew attention to the difficulty of arranging such machines in areas remote from rivers, and settled on the idea of ​​using steam as an engine. There is some evidence that suggests that this thought did not appear to him independently, but under the influence of Schlatter's book: "A Detailed Instruction to Mining" (St. Petersburg, 1760), in the tenth chapter of which the first Russian description of a steam engine, namely, a machine Newcomen. Polzunov energetically took up the implementation of his idea, began to study the strength and properties of water vapor, drew up drawings, and made models. Convinced, after lengthy research and experiments, of the possibility of replacing the driving force of water with the power of steam and proving this on models, in April 1763 Polzunov turned to the head of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, Major General A. I. Poroshin, with a letter in which , outlining the motives that prompted him to find a new force, asked for funds for the construction of the "fiery machine" invented by him. Polzunov's project was reported to the Cabinet of Her Majesty with a request for the release of the amount necessary for the construction of the machine. According to the report of the Cabinet, a decree of Catherine II followed, by which she, "for greater encouragement", granted Polzunov to the mechanics with a salary and the rank of an engineering captain-lieutenant, ordered to issue 400 rubles as a reward. and pointed out, "if he is not needed at the factories, send him to St. Petersburg, with silver" for two or three years to the Academy of Sciences, to replenish education. But the authorities did not let Polzunov go and asked that he be sent to the Academy of Sciences for some time to be canceled, "because there is an extreme need for him here, in order to bring that machine operating in pairs into practice." In view of this, Polzunov had to stay in Siberia until the end of the case. Until then, the issuance of the above-mentioned 400 rubles was also postponed. According to the estimate presented to him, the necessary amounts and materials were released to him, and he was given the opportunity to begin construction. On May 20, 1765, Polzunov already reported that the preparatory work had been completed and that the machine would be put into action in October of that year. But by this time the car was not ready. A mass of unforeseen difficulties and the inexperience of the workers slowed down the progress of the work. In addition, many of the materials needed to build the machine could not be obtained in Siberia. I had to write them out from Yekaterinburg and expect them to be sent within a few months. In December 1765, Polzunov finished the car, having spent 7435 rubles on it. 51 kop. However, he failed to see his invention in action. The test of the car was scheduled in Barnaul for May 20, 1766, and on May 16 of the same year, Polzunov had already died "from severe laryngeal bleeding." Polzunov's machine, under the guidance of his students Levzin and Chernitsin, melted 9335 items of Zmeinogorsk ores in Barnaul within two months, but soon its operation in Barnaul was terminated "as unnecessary", and there is no information whether it was used on those who did not have water-acting engines Zmeinogorsk plant and the Semenovsky mine, where it was originally intended by the inventor himself and his superiors, In 1780, "the machine built by Polzunov, operated by steam, and the structure were broken." The Barnaul Mining Museum has a model of Polzunov's machine. Polzunov cannot be credited, as some do, with the honor of inventing the first steam engine. Nevertheless, Polzunov's machine was, in fact, the first steam engine built in Russia, and not ordered from abroad; the use in 1765 of a steam engine not for lifting water, but for another industrial purpose, should be considered an independent invention, since in England the first use of a steam engine for pumping air was made only in 1765.

The accumulation of new practical knowledge in the 16th-17th centuries led to unheard-of upsurges of human thought. Water and wind wheels rotate machine tools, set bellows in motion, help metallurgists lift ore from mines, that is, where human hands cannot cope with hard work, the energy of water and wind comes to their aid. The main technological achievements of that time owe not so much to scientists and science as to the painstaking work of skilled inventors. Achievements in mining technology, in the extraction of various ores and minerals were especially great. It was necessary to raise the mined ore or coal from the mine, pump out the groundwater that flooded the mine all the time, constantly supply air to the mine, and a lot of a wide variety of labor-intensive work was required so that mining would not stop. Thus, the developing industry imperiously demanded more and more energy, and at that time it was mainly water wheels that could provide it. They have already learned to build powerful enough. In connection with the increase in the power of the wheels, metal has become increasingly used for shafts and some other parts. In France, on the Seine River in 1682, master R. Salem, under the leadership of A. de Ville, built the largest installation for that time, consisting of 13 wheels with a diameter of 8 m, which served to drive more than 200 pumps that supplied water to a height of over 160 m , and providing water to fountains in Versailles and Marly. The first cotton mills used a hydraulic engine. Arkwright's spinning machines were powered by water from the beginning. However, water wheels could only be installed on a river, preferably full-flowing and fast. And if a textile or metalworking factory could still be built on the banks of the river, then ore deposits or coal seams had to be developed only in places of occurrence. And for pumping out the groundwater that flooded the mine and lifting the mined ore or coal to the surface, energy was also needed. Therefore, in the mines remote from the rivers, it was necessary to use only the power of animals.

The owner of an English mine in 1702 had to keep 500 horses to operate the pumps that pump water out of the mine, which was very unprofitable.

The developing industry needed powerful engines of a new type that would allow production to be created anywhere. The first impetus for the creation of new engines that can work anywhere, whether there is a river nearby or not, was precisely the need for pumps and lifts in metallurgy and mining.

The ability of steam to produce mechanical work has long been known to man. The first traces of the actual intelligent use of steam in mechanics are mentioned in 1545 in Spain, when a naval captain

Blasco de Garay designed a machine with which he set in motion the side paddle wheels of a ship, and which, by order of Charles V, was first tested in the harbor of Barcelona when transporting 4,000 quintals of cargo by ship three nautical miles in two hours. The inventor was rewarded, but the machine itself was left without use and was consigned to oblivion.

At the end of the 17th century, in countries with the most developed manufactory production, elements of new machine technology were born using the properties and power of water vapor.

Early attempts to create a heat engine were associated with the need to pump water from mines where fuel was mined. In 1698, the Englishman Thomas Savery, a former miner and then captain of the merchant marine, first proposed pumping water using a steam water lift. The patent received by Savery read: "This new invention of raising water and getting propulsion for all kinds of production by means of the motive power of fire is of great importance for the drying of mines, the water supply of cities, and the production of motive power for factories of all kinds, which cannot use water power or the constant work of wind." The Severi water lift worked on the principle of sucking water at the expense of atmospheric pressure into the chamber, where a rarefaction was created when the steam condensed with cold water. Severi's steam engines were extremely uneconomical and inconvenient to operate, they could not be adapted to drive machine tools, they consumed a huge amount of fuel, their efficiency was not higher than 0.3%. However, the demand for pumping water from the mines was so great that even these bulky pump-type steam engines gained some popularity.

Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) - English inventor, blacksmith by profession. Together with the tinker J. Cowley, he built a steam pump, the experiments to improve which lasted about 10 years, until he began to work properly. The Newcomen steam engine was not a universal engine. The merit of Newcomen is that he was one of the first to realize the idea of ​​using steam to obtain mechanical work. The Society of British Technologists bears his name. In 1711, Newcomen, Cowley, and Savery formed the "Company of Owners of Rights to Invent Apparatus for Raising Water by Fire." As long as these inventors were patent holders for "using the power of fire", all their work on the manufacture of steam engines was carried out in the strictest confidence. The Swede Triwald, who adjusted Newcomen's machines, wrote: “... the inventors Newcomen and Cowley were very suspicious and cautious in keeping the secret of building and using their invention for themselves and their children. The Spanish envoy to the English court, who came from London with a large retinue of foreigners to look at the new invention, was not even allowed into the room in which the machines were located. But in the 20s of the XVIII century, the patent expired and many engineers took up the manufacture of water-lifting installations. Literature appeared that described these settings.

The process of distribution of universal steam engines in England by the beginning of the 19th century. confirms the enormous significance of the new invention. If for a decade from 1775 to 1785. 66 double-acting machines were built with a total capacity of 1288 hp, then from 1785 to 1795. 144 double-acting machines with a total power of 2009 hp were already created, and in the next five years - from 1795 to 1800. - 79 cars with a total capacity of 1296 hp

In fact, the use of the steam engine in industry began in 1710, when the English workers Newcomen and Cowley first built a steam engine that powered a pump installed in a mine to pump water out of it.

However, Newcomen's machine was not a steam engine in the modern sense of the word, since the driving force in it was still not water vapor, but atmospheric air pressure. Therefore, this machine was called "atmospheric". Although in the machine, water vapor served, as in Severi's machine, mainly to create a vacuum in the cylinder, a movable piston was already proposed here - the main part of the modern steam engine.

On fig. Figure 4.1 shows the Newcomen-Cowley steam lift. When lowering the sucker rod 1 and load 2, the piston 4 rose and steam entered the cylinder 5 through the open tap 7 from the boiler 8, the pressure of which was slightly higher than atmospheric. Steam served to partially lift the piston in the cylinder, open at the top, but its main role was to create a vacuum in it. For this purpose, when the piston of the machine reached its upper position, tap 7 was closed, and cold water was injected from tank 3 through tap 6 into the cylinder. The water vapor quickly condensed, and atmospheric pressure returned the piston to the bottom of the cylinder, lifting the sucker rod. Condensate was discharged from the cylinder by a tube9, the piston was raised again due to the supply of steam, and the process described above was repeated. Newcomen's machine is a batch engine.

Newcomen's steam engine was more perfect than Savery's, easier to operate, more economical and productive. However, the machines of the first releases worked very uneconomically, to create a power of one horsepower per hour, up to 25 kg of coal was burned, that is, the efficiency was about 0.5%. The introduction of automatic distribution of steam and water flows simplified the maintenance of the machine, the piston stroke time decreased to 12-16 minutes, which reduced the dimensions of the machine and made the design cheaper. Despite the high fuel consumption, this type of machine quickly became widespread. Already in the twenties of the XVIII century, these machines worked not only in England, but also in many European countries - in Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Sweden, they were used for almost a century in the coal industry and for supplying water to cities. In Russia, the first Newcomen steam-atmospheric machine was installed in 1772 in Kronstadt to pump water from the dock. The prevalence of Newcomen machines is evidenced by the fact that the last machine of this type in England was dismantled only in 1934.

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov (1728-1766) is a talented Russian inventor who was born in the family of a soldier. In 1742, the mechanic of the Yekaterinburg plant, Nikita Bakharev, needed quick-witted students. The choice fell on the fourteen-year-olds I. Polzunov and S. Cheremisinov, who were still studying at the Arithmetic School. Theoretical training at school gave way to practical acquaintance with the work of the most modern machines and installations of the Yekaterinburg plant in Russia at that time. In 1748, Polzunov was transferred to Barnaul to work at the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories. After self-study of books on metallurgy and mineralogy in April 1763, Polzunov proposed a project of a completely original steam engine, which differed from all machines known at that time in that it was designed to drive blower bellows and was a continuous unit. In his memorandum on the "fire machine" dated April 26, 1763, Polzunov, in his own words, wanted " ... by the addition of a fiery machine to stop the water management and, for these cases, completely destroy it, and instead of dams for the movable foundation of the plant, establish it so that it is able to all the burdens imposed on itself, which are usually necessary for fanning the fire, carry and, at will ours, what will be necessary, to correct. And then he wrote: “In order to achieve this glory (if the forces allow) for the Fatherland, and so that it is for the benefit of the whole people, due to the great knowledge about the use of things that are still not very familiar (following the example of other sciences), introduce into the custom. In the future, the inventor dreamed of adapting the machine for other needs. Project I.I. Polzunov was introduced to the royal office in St. Petersburg. The decision of Catherine II was as follows: “Her Imperial Majesty is not only Polzunov, mercifully pleased to be, but for the greatest encouragement she deigned to command: welcome Evo, Polzunov, to the mechanics with the rank and salary of a lieutenant captain, and give him 400 rubles as a reward” .

Newcomen's machines, which worked perfectly as water-lifting devices, could not satisfy the urgent need for a universal engine. They only paved the way for the creation of universal continuous steam engines.

At the initial stage of the development of steam engines, it is necessary to single out the “fiery machine” of the Russian mining master Polzunov. The engine was intended to drive the mechanisms of one of the smelting furnaces of the Barnaul plant.

According to Polzunov's project (Fig. 4.2), steam from the boiler (1) was supplied to one, say, left cylinder (2), where it raised the piston (3) to its highest position. Then a jet of cold water (4) was injected from the tank into the cylinder, which led to the condensation of steam. As a result of atmospheric pressure on the piston, it descended, while in the right cylinder, as a result of steam pressure, the piston rose. Water and steam distribution in Polzunov's machine was carried out by a special automatic device (5). The continuous working force from the pistons of the machine was transmitted to a pulley (6) mounted on a shaft, from which the movement was transmitted to the water and steam distribution device, the feed pump, and also to the working shaft, from which the blower bellows were set in motion.

Polzunov's engine belonged to the "atmospheric" type, but in it the inventor first introduced the summation of the work of two cylinders with pistons on one common shaft, which ensured a more uniform engine stroke. When one of the cylinders was idling, the other had a working stroke. The engine had automatic steam distribution and for the first time was not directly connected to the working machine. I.I. Polzunov created his car in extremely difficult conditions, with his own hands, without the necessary funds and special machines. He did not have skilled craftsmen at his disposal: the plant management seconded four students to Polzunov and allocated two retired workers. The ax and other simple tools used in the manufacture of then conventional machines were of little use here. Polzunov had to independently design and build new equipment for his invention. The construction of a large machine, about 11 meters high, immediately from the sheet, not even tested on a model, without specialists, required a huge effort. The car was built, but on May 27, 1766, I.I. Polzunov died of transient consumption, not having lived a week before the tests of the "big machine". The machine itself, tested by Polzunov's students, which not only paid for itself, but also brought profit, worked for 2 months, did not receive further improvement, and after a breakdown was abandoned and forgotten. After the Polzunov engine, half a century passed before steam engines began to be used in Russia.

James Watt - English inventor, creator of the universal steam engine, member of the Royal Society of London - was born in Greenock, Scotland. Since 1757, he worked as a mechanic at the University of Glasgow, where he got acquainted with the properties of water vapor and conducted research on the dependence of the temperature of saturated steam on pressure. In 1763-1764, while adjusting the model of Newcomen's steam engine, he proposed to reduce steam consumption by separating the steam condenser from the cylinder. From that time on, his work began on improving steam engines, researching the properties of steam, building new machines, etc., which continued throughout his life. On Watt's monument in Westminster Abbey, the inscription is carved: "... applying the power of creative genius to the improvement of the steam engine, he expanded the productivity of his country, increased the power of man over nature and took an outstanding place among the most famous men of science and the true benefactors of mankind." In search of funds for the construction of his engine, Watt began to dream of a profitable job outside of England. In the early 70s, he told his friends that "he was tired of the fatherland," and seriously started talking about moving to Russia. The Russian government offered the English engineer "an occupation according to his taste and knowledge" and with an annual salary of 1,000 pounds sterling. Watt's departure for Russia was prevented by a contract that he concluded in 1772 with the capitalist Bolton, the owner of a machine-building enterprise in Soho near Birmingham. Bolton had long known about the invention of a new, "fiery" machine, but hesitated to subsidize its construction, doubting the practical value of the machine. He hurried to conclude an agreement with Watt only when there was a real threat of the inventor's departure to Russia. The agreement linking Watt to Bolton proved to be very effective. Bolton proved to be an intelligent and far-sighted man. He did not stint on the cost of building the machine. Bolton realized that Watt's genius, freed from the petty, exhausting concern for a piece of bread, would unfold in full force and enrich the enterprising capitalist. In addition, Bolton himself was a major mechanical engineer. Watt's technical ideas also captivated him. The plant in Soho was famous for its first-class equipment for those times, and had skilled workers. Therefore, Watt enthusiastically accepted Bolton's offer to set up the production of steam engines of a new design at the plant. From the beginning of the 70s until the end of his life, Watt remained the chief mechanic of the plant. At the Soho factory, at the end of 1774, the first double-acting machine was built.

Newcomen's machine was greatly improved over the century of its existence, but remained "atmospheric" and did not meet the needs of the rapidly growing technology of manufacturing production, which required the organization of rotational movement at high speed.

The search for many inventors was aimed at achieving the goal. In England alone, during the last quarter of the 18th century, more than a dozen patents were issued for universal engines of various systems. However, only James Watt managed to offer the industry a universal steam engine.

Watt began his work on the steam engine almost simultaneously with Polzunov, but under different conditions. In England at this time, industry was booming. Watt was actively supported by Bolton, the owner of several factories in England, who later became his partner, Parliament, and had the opportunity to use highly qualified engineering personnel. In 1769, Watt patented a steam engine with a separate condenser, and then the use of excess steam pressure in the engine, which significantly reduced fuel consumption. Watt was rightfully the creator of the steam piston engine.

On fig. 4.3, a diagram of one of Watt's first steam engines is shown. The steam boiler 1 is connected with the piston cylinder 3 by a steam pipeline 2 through which steam is periodically admitted into the upper cavity above the piston 4 and into the lower cavity below the piston of the cylinder. These cavities are connected to the condenser by a pipe5, where the exhaust steam is condensed with cold water and a vacuum is created. The machine has a balancer 6, which connects the piston with a crankshaft with the help of a connecting rod 7, at the end of which a flywheel is mounted 8.

For the first time, the principle of double action of steam was applied in the machine, which consists in the fact that fresh steam is admitted into the cylinder of the machine alternately into the chambers on both sides of the piston. Watt's introduction of the principle of steam expansion consisted in the fact that fresh steam was let into the cylinder only for part of the piston stroke, then the steam was cut off, and further piston movement was carried out due to steam expansion and a drop in its pressure.

Thus, in Watt's machine, the decisive driving force was not atmospheric pressure, but the elasticity of the high-pressure steam that sets the piston in motion. The new principle of steam operation required a complete change in the design of the machine, especially the cylinder and steam distribution. To eliminate steam condensation in the cylinder, Watt first introduced a steam jacket of the cylinder, with the help of which he began to heat its working walls with steam, and insulated the outer side of the steam jacket. Since Watt could not use a connecting rod-crank mechanism in his machine to create a uniform rotational movement (a protective patent was taken for such a transmission by the French inventor Picard), in 1781 he took out a patent for five ways to convert the rocking movement into a continuous rotational one. At first, for this purpose, he used a planetary, or solar, wheel. Finally, Watt introduced a centrifugal speed controller to change the amount of steam supplied to the cylinder of the machine with a change in the number of revolutions. Thus, Watt, in his steam engine, laid down the basic principles of the design and operation of a modern steam engine.

Watt's steam engines operated on low-pressure saturated steam of 0.2–0.3 MPa, at a low number of revolutions per minute. Steam engines thus modified gave excellent results, reducing coal consumption per hp / h (horsepower per hour) several times compared with Newcomen's machines, and displaced the water wheel from the mining industry. In the mid 80s of the XVIII century. The design of the steam engine was finally developed, and the double-acting steam engine became a universal heat engine that found wide application in almost all sectors of the economy in many countries. In the 19th century, shaft lifting steam power plants, steam power blowers, rolling steam power plants, steam hammers, steam pumps, etc., became widespread.

Further increase in efficiency The steam power plant was achieved by Watt's contemporary Arthur Wolf in England by introducing multiple expansion of steam in succession in 2, 3 and even 4 stages, while the steam passed from one cylinder of the machine to another.

The rejection of the balancer and the use of multiple steam expansion led to the creation of new constructive forms of machines. Double-expansion engines began to take shape in the form of two cylinders - a high-pressure cylinder (HPC) and a low-pressure cylinder (LPC), which received the exhaust steam after the HPC. The cylinders were located either horizontally (compound machine, Fig. 4.4, a), or sequentially, when both pistons are seated on a common rod (tandem machine, Fig. 4.4, b).

Of great importance for increasing efficiency. steam engines began to use superheated steam with a temperature of up to 350 ° C in the middle of the 19th century, which made it possible to reduce fuel consumption to 4.5 kg per hp / h. The use of superheated steam was first proposed by the French scientist G.A. Girnom.

Born into a working-class family, George Stephenson (1781–1848) worked in the Newcastle coal mines where his father and grandfather also worked. He did a lot of self-education, studied physics, mechanics and other sciences, was interested in inventive activity. Stephenson's outstanding abilities led him to the post of mechanic, and in 1823 he was appointed chief engineer of the company for the construction of the first public railway Stockton-Darlington; this opened up great opportunities for him to design and inventive work.

In Russia, the first steam locomotives were built by Russian mechanics and inventors Cherepanovs - Efim Alekseevich (father, 1774-1842) and Miron Efimovich (son, 1803-1849), who worked at the Nizhny Tagil factories and were former serfs of the factory owners Demidovs. Cherepanovs through self-education became educated people, they visited the factories of St. Petersburg and Moscow, England and Sweden. For inventive activity, Miron Cherepanov and his wife were given freedom in 1833. Efim Cherepanov and his wife were given freedom in 1836. The Cherepanovs created about 20 different steam engines that worked at the Nizhny Tagil factories.

High steam pressure for steam engines was first used by Oliver Evans in America. This resulted in a further reduction in fuel consumption of up to 3 kg per hp/h. Later, steam locomotive designers began to use multi-cylinder steam engines, overpressure steam, and a reversing device.

In the XVIII century. there was a completely understandable desire to use the steam engine for land and water transport. In the development of steam engines, an independent direction was locomotives - mobile steam power plants. The first installation of this type was developed by the English builder John Smith. In fact, the development of steam transport began with the installation of fire tubes in fire-tube boilers, which significantly increased their steam output.

Many attempts were made to develop steam locomotives - steam locomotives, operating models were built (Fig. 4.5, 4.6). Of these, the Rocket steam locomotive built by the talented English inventor George Stephenson (1781–1848) in 1825 stands out (see Fig. 4.6, a, b).

The Rocket was not the first steam locomotive designed and built by Stephenson, but this one was superior in many respects and was voted the best locomotive at a special exhibition at Rayhill and recommended for the new Liverpool-Manchester railway, which became exemplary at that time. In 1823, Stephenson organized the first locomotive plant in Newcastle. In 1829, a competition was organized in England for the best steam locomotive, the winner of which was the machine of J. Stephenson. His steam locomotive "Rocket", developed on the basis of a fire boiler, with a train mass of 17 tons, developed a speed of 21 km / h. Later, the speed of the "Rocket" was increased to 45 km / h.

Railways began to play in the XVIII century. huge role. The first passenger railway in Russia with a length of 27 km, by decision of the tsarist government, was built by foreign entrepreneurs in 1837 between St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk. The Petersburg-Moscow double-track railway began operating in 1851.

In 1834, the father and son Cherepanovs built the first Russian steam locomotive (see Fig. 4.6, c, d), carrying a load of 3.5 tons at a speed of 15 km / h. Their subsequent steam locomotives carried cargo weighing 17 tons.

Attempts to use a steam engine in water transport have been made since the beginning of the 18th century. It is known, for example, that the French physicist D. Papin (1647–1714) built a boat driven by a steam engine. True, Papin did not achieve success in this matter.

The problem was solved by the American inventor Robert Fulton (1765–1815), who was born in Little Briton (now Fulton) in Pennsylvania. It is curious to note that the first great successes in the creation of steam engines for industry, railway and water transport fell to talented people who acquired knowledge through self-education. Fulton was no exception in this regard. Fulton, who later became a mechanical engineer, came from a poor family, and at first did a lot of self-education. Fulton lived in England, where he was engaged in the construction of hydraulic structures and the solution of a number of other technical problems. While in France (in Paris), he built the Nautilus submarine and a steam vessel that was tested on the Seine River. But all this was just the beginning.

Real success came to Fulton in 1807: returning to America, he built the Clermont paddle steamer with a carrying capacity of 15 tons, driven by a 20 hp steam engine. s., which in August 1807 made the first flight from New York to Albany with a length of about 280 km.

The further development of shipping, both river and sea, went quite quickly. This was facilitated by the transition from wooden to steel ship structures, the growth in power and speed of steam engines, the introduction of a propeller, and a number of other factors.

With the invention of the steam engine, man learned to convert energy concentrated in fuel into movement, into work.

The steam engine is one of the very few inventions in history that dramatically changed the picture of the world, revolutionized industry, transport, and gave impetus to a new rise in scientific knowledge. It was the universal engine of industry and transport throughout the 19th century, but its capabilities no longer met the requirements for engines that arose in connection with the construction of power plants and the use of high-speed mechanisms at the end of the 19th century.

Instead of a low-speed steam engine, a high-speed turbine with a higher efficiency enters the technical arena as a new heat engine.

The history of the development of the steam engine is described in sufficient detail in this article. Here are the most famous solutions and inventions of the times of 1672-1891.

First work.

Let's start with the fact that back in the seventeenth century, steam began to be considered as a means for driving, all kinds of experiments were carried out with it, and only in 1643 Evangelista Torricelli discovered the force action of steam pressure. Christian Huygens, 47 years later, designed the first power machine, powered by an explosion of gunpowder in a cylinder. It was the first prototype of an internal combustion engine. On a similar principle, the Abbot Otfey's water intake machine is arranged. Soon Denis Papin decided to replace the force of the explosion with the less powerful force of steam. In 1690 he built first steam engine, also known as a steam boiler.

It consisted of a piston, which, with the help of boiling water, moved up in the cylinder and, due to subsequent cooling, lowered again - this was how force was created. The whole process took place in this way: under the cylinder, which simultaneously performed the function of a boiler, a furnace was placed; when the piston was in the upper position, the furnace moved back to facilitate cooling.

Later, two Englishmen, Thomas Newcomen and Cowley - one a blacksmith, the other a glazier - improved the system by separating the boiler and cylinder and adding a tank of cold water. This system functioned by means of valves or faucets, one for steam and one for water, which were alternately opened and closed. Then the Englishman Bayton rebuilt the valve control into a truly clocked one.

The use of steam engines in practice.

Newcomen's machine soon became known everywhere and, in particular, was improved by the double action system developed by James Watt in 1765. Now Steam engine turned out to be sufficiently complete for use in vehicles, although due to its size it was better suited for stationary installations. Watt offered his inventions to industry as well; he also built machines for textile factories.

The first steam engine used as a means of transportation was invented by the Frenchman Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, an engineer and amateur military strategist. In 1763 or 1765, he created a car that could carry four passengers at an average speed of 3.5 and a maximum of 9.5 km / h. The first attempt was followed by the second - a car appeared for transporting guns. It was tested, of course, by the military, but due to the impossibility of long-term operation (the continuous cycle of the new machine did not exceed 15 minutes), the inventor did not receive support from the authorities and financiers. Meanwhile, in England, the steam engine was being improved. After several unsuccessful Watt-based attempts by Moore, William Murdoch and William Symington, Richard Travisick's rail vehicle, commissioned by the Welsh Colliery, appeared. An active inventor came to the world: from underground mines, he rose to the ground and in 1802 presented mankind with a powerful passenger car that reached a speed of 15 km / h on level ground and 6 km / h on the rise.

Ferry-powered vehicles were also increasingly used in the United States: Nathan Reed in 1790 surprised the people of Philadelphia with his steam car model. However, his compatriot Oliver Evans, who fourteen years later invented the amphibious vehicle, became even more famous. After the Napoleonic Wars, during which "automobile experiments" were not carried out, work began again on invention and improvement of the steam engine. In 1821, it could be considered perfect and quite reliable. Since then, every step forward in the field of steam-powered vehicles has definitely contributed to the development of future vehicles.

In 1825, Sir Goldsworth Gurney, on a 171 km long section from London to Bath, organized the first passenger line. At the same time, he used a carriage patented by him, which had a steam engine. This was the beginning of the era of high-speed road carriages, which, however, disappeared in England, but became widespread in Italy and France. Such vehicles reached their highest development with the appearance in 1873 of the "Curts" by Amede Balle weighing 4500 kg and the "Mansel" - more compact, weighing just over 2500 kg and reaching a speed of 35 km / h. Both were forerunners of the technique that became characteristic of the first "real" cars. Despite the high speed steam engine efficiency was very small. Bolle was the one who patented the first well-functioning steering system, he arranged the controls and controls so well that we still see it on the dashboard today.

Despite the tremendous progress in the field of internal combustion engine, steam power still provided a more uniform and smooth running of the machine and, therefore, had many supporters. Like Bollet, who built other light cars, such as the Rapide in 1881 with a speed of 60 km/h, the Nouvelle in 1873, which had a front axle with independent wheel suspension, Leon Chevrolet launched several cars between 1887 and 1907. with a light and compact steam generator, which he patented in 1889. De Dion-Bouton, founded in Paris in 1883, produced steam-powered cars for the first ten years of its existence and achieved significant success in doing so - its cars won the Paris-Rouen race in 1894.

However, Panhard et Levassor's success in using petrol led De Dion to switch to internal combustion engines. When the Bolle brothers took over their father's company, they did the same. Then the Chevrolet company rebuilt its production. Steam-powered cars disappeared faster and faster from the horizon, although they were used in the USA even before 1930. At this very moment, production ceased and the invention of steam engines

The history of steam engines goes back to the 1st century AD, when Heron of Alexandria first described the aeolipil. More than 1500 years later, in 1551, the Ottoman scientist Takiyuddin al-Shami described primitive turbines driven by steam, and in 1629 a similar discovery was made by Giovanni Branca. These devices were steam roasting skewers or small gears. Basically, such designs were used by inventors to demonstrate the power of steam, and proof that it should not be underestimated.

In the 1700s, miners faced a serious challenge - the need to pump water out of deep mines. The same power of steam came to the rescue. With the help of steam energy, it was possible to pump water out of the mines. This application unlocked the potential power of steam and led to the invention of the steam engine. Steam power plants came later. The main principle on which steam engines operate is "the condensation of water vapor to create a partial vacuum."

Thomas Savery and the first industrial engines

Thomas Savery first invented the steam pump in 1698 to pump water. This invention is often referred to as the "fire engine" or engine for "raising water with fire". The steam pump, patented by Severi, worked by boiling water until it was completely converted to steam. Then each droplet of steam rose into the tank, and a vacuum formed in the container where the water was originally. This vacuum was used to pump water from deep mines. But the solution turned out to be temporary, since the steam energy was only enough to pump out water from a depth of several meters. Another disadvantage of this design was the use of steam pressure to draw out the water sucked into the tank. The pressure was too high for the boilers, which caused a series of violent explosions.

Low pressure machines

The high coal consumption of Newcomen steam engines was reduced by the innovations of James Watt. The cylinder of the low pressure machine was equipped with thermal protection, a separate condenser and a condensate water drain. Thus, coal consumption in low-pressure machines has been reduced by more than 50%.

Ivan Polzunov and the first two-cylinder steam engine

Ivan Polzunov invented the first steam engine in Russia. His two-cylinder steam engine was more powerful than British naturally aspirated engines. They reached a power of 24 kW. A model of Polzunov's two-cylinder steam engine is on display at the Barnaul Museum.

Thomas Newcomen steam engine

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine, which was very successful from a practical point of view. His model consisted of a piston or cylinder that propelled a huge wooden deck to run a water pump. The reverse stroke in the machine was due to gravity, which pushed down the end of the deck from the side of the pump. Newcomen's machine was in active use for 50 years. Then it was recognized as ineffective, since it required a lot of energy to actively function. It was necessary to heat the cylinder, as it constantly cooled down, as a result of which a lot of fuel was burned.

Improvements by James Watt

James Watt made a real revolution in the history of the development of steam engines by introducing a separate capacitor into the original design. He introduced this innovation in 1765. But only 11 years later, it was possible to achieve a design that could be used on an industrial scale. The biggest problem in implementing Watt's idea was the technology to create a huge piston to maintain the right amount of vacuum. But the technology soon made great progress, and as soon as the patent received sufficient funding, the Watt steam engine began to be actively used on railways and ships. In the US, more than 60,000 cars were powered by steam engines from 1897 to 1927.

High pressure machines

In 1800 Richard Trevithick invented the high pressure steam engine. Compared to all previously invented designs of steam engines, this option was the most powerful. But the design proposed by Oliver Evans was truly successful. It was based on the idea of ​​driving the engine with steam rather than condensing the steam to create a vacuum. Evans invented the first high-pressure non-condensing steam engine in 1805. The machine was stationary and developed 30 revolutions per minute. This machine was originally used to power saws. Such machines were supported by huge reservoirs of water, which were heated by a heat source placed directly under the reservoir, which made it possible to efficiently generate the right amount of steam.

These steam engines soon came into widespread use in motorboats and railroads, in 1802 and 1829 respectively. Almost half a century later, the first steam cars appeared. Charles Algernon Parsons invented the first steam turbine in 1880. By the early 20th century, steam engines were widely used in automobile and shipbuilding.

Cornish steam engines

Richard Trevetick tried to improve the steam pump invented by Watt. It was modified for use in the Cornish cauldrons invented by Trevetick. The efficiency of the Cornish steam engine was greatly improved by William Sims, Arthur Woolf and Samuel Gruz. Updated Cornish steam engines consisted of insulated pipes, engine and boilers for increased efficiency.

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Interest in water vapor, as an affordable source of energy, appeared along with the first scientific knowledge of the ancients. People have been trying to tame this energy for three millennia. What are the main stages of this path? Whose reflections and projects have taught mankind to extract the maximum benefit from it?

Prerequisites for the emergence of steam engines

The need for mechanisms that can facilitate labor-intensive processes has always existed. Until about the middle of the 18th century, windmills and water wheels were used for this purpose. The possibility of using wind energy directly depends on the vagaries of the weather. And to use water wheels, factories had to be built along the banks of rivers, which is not always convenient and expedient. And the effectiveness of both was extremely low. A fundamentally new engine was needed, easily managed and devoid of these shortcomings.

The history of the invention and improvement of steam engines

The creation of a steam engine is the result of much thought, success and failure of the hopes of many scientists.

The beginning of the way

The first, single projects were only interesting curiosities. For example, Archimedes built a steam gun Heron of Alexandria used the energy of steam to open the doors of ancient temples. And researchers find notes on the practical application of steam energy to actuate other mechanisms in the works Leonardo da Vinci.

Consider the most significant projects on this topic.

In the 16th century, the Arab engineer Tagi al Din developed a design for a primitive steam turbine. However, it did not receive practical application due to the strong dispersion of the steam jet supplied to the turbine wheel blades.

Fast forward to medieval France. The physicist and talented inventor Denis Papin, after many unsuccessful projects, stops at the following design: a vertical cylinder was filled with water, over which a piston was installed.

The cylinder was heated, the water boiled and evaporated. The expanding steam lifted the piston. It was fixed at the top point of the rise and the cylinder was expected to cool and the steam to condense. After the steam condensed, a vacuum was formed in the cylinder. The piston, freed from fastening, rushed into vacuum under the action of atmospheric pressure. It was this fall of the piston that was supposed to be used as a working stroke.

So, the useful stroke of the piston was caused by the formation of a vacuum due to the condensation of steam and external (atmospheric) pressure.

Because the Papin steam engine like most subsequent projects, they were called steam-atmospheric machines.

This design had a very significant drawback - the repeatability of the cycle was not provided. Denis comes up with the idea of ​​getting steam not in a cylinder, but separately in a steam boiler.

Denis Papin entered the history of the creation of steam engines as the inventor of a very important detail - the steam boiler.

And since they began to receive steam outside the cylinder, the engine itself passed into the category of external combustion engines. But due to the lack of a distribution mechanism that ensures uninterrupted operation, these projects have hardly found practical application.

A new stage in the development of steam engines

For about 50 years, it has been used to pump water in coal mines. Thomas Newcomen's steam pump. He largely repeated the previous designs, but contained very important novelties - a pipe for the withdrawal of condensed steam and a safety valve for the release of excess steam.

Its significant drawback was that the cylinder had to be heated before steam was injected, then cooled before it condensed. But the need for such engines was so high that, despite their obvious inefficiency, the last copies of these machines served until 1930.

In 1765 English mechanic James Watt, engaged in the improvement of Newcomen's machine, separated the condenser from the steam cylinder.

It became possible to keep the cylinder constantly heated. The efficiency of the machine immediately increased. In subsequent years, Watt significantly improved his model, equipping it with a device for supplying steam from one side to the other.

It became possible to use this machine not only as a pump, but also to drive various machine tools. Watt received a patent for his invention - a continuous steam engine. The mass production of these machines begins.

By the beginning of the 19th century, over 320 Watt steam engines were operating in England. Other European countries also began to buy them. This contributed to a significant increase in industrial production in many industries, both in England itself and in neighboring states.

Twenty years earlier than Watt, in Russia, the Altai mechanic Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov worked on the steam engine project.

The factory authorities suggested that he build a unit that would drive the blower of the melting furnace.

The machine he built was a two-cylinder and ensured the continuous operation of the device connected to it.

Having successfully worked for more than a month and a half, the boiler started leaking. Polzunov himself was no longer alive by this time. The car was not repaired. And the wonderful creation of a single Russian inventor was forgotten.

Due to the backwardness of Russia at that time the world learned about the invention of I. I. Polzunov with a great delay ....

So, to drive a steam engine, it is necessary that the steam generated by the steam boiler, expanding, presses on the piston or on the turbine blades. And then their movement was transferred to other mechanical parts.

The use of steam engines in transport

Despite the fact that the efficiency of steam engines of that time did not exceed 5%, by the end of the 18th century they began to be actively used in agriculture and transport:

• in France there is a car with a steam engine;
• in the USA, a steamboat begins to run between the cities of Philadelphia and Burlington;
• in England, a steam-powered railway locomotive was demonstrated;
• a Russian peasant from the Saratov province patented a caterpillar tractor built by him with a capacity of 20 hp. With.;
• attempts have been repeatedly made to build an aircraft with a steam engine, but, unfortunately, the low power of these units with the large weight of the aircraft made these attempts unsuccessful.

By the end of the 19th century, steam engines, having played their role in the technical progress of society, gave way to electric motors.

Steam devices in the XXI century

With the advent of new energy sources in the 20th and 21st centuries, the need to use steam energy appears again. Steam turbines are becoming an integral part of nuclear power plants. The steam that powers them is obtained from nuclear fuel.

These turbines are also widely used in condensing thermal power plants.

In a number of countries, experiments are being carried out to obtain steam due to solar energy.

Reciprocating steam engines are not forgotten either. In mountainous areas as a locomotive steam locomotives are still used.

These reliable workers are both safer and cheaper. They do not need power lines, and fuel - wood and cheap grades of coal - are always at hand.

Modern technologies allow capturing up to 95% of emissions into the atmosphere and increasing efficiency up to 21%, so that people have decided not to part with them yet and are working on a new generation of steam locomotives.

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