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Steam engine facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Engine House (3452966818)
A full scale working replica of that 1712 engine built by Thomas Newcomen for pumping water from the mines on the estates of Lord Dudley. Black Country Living Museum
Puffing Billy side Science Museum London
Earliest surviving locomotive: Puffing Billy at the Science Museum
Cathedral of Sewage - geograph.org.uk - 676706
This huge building housed the four largest beam engines in Britain. They were used for moving sewage at Crossness, Bexley
Old bess steam engine 1777
Old Bess: Watt's beam engine, 1777, built by Boulton and Watt. The beam engine was used to raise water. Constant water was needed because a water wheel was used to drive the machinery in Boulton's Soho Manufactory in Birmingham

A steam engine is an engine which uses steam from boiling water to make it move. The steam pushes on the engine parts to make them move. Steam engines can power many kinds of machines including vehicles and electric generators.

When did the first steam engine appear?

Steam engines were used in mine pumps starting in the early 18th century and were much improved by James Watt in the 1770s. They were very important during the industrial revolution where they replaced horses, windmills and watermills to work machines.

The first steam engines were piston engines. The steam pressure pushed on a piston which made it move along a cylinder and so they had a reciprocal (back-and-forth) motion. This could move a pump directly or work a crank to turn a wheel and work a machine. They operated at low pressure and had to be very big to make much power.

Steam engines were used in factories to work machines and in mines to move pumps. Later smaller engines were built that could move railway locomotives and steam boats.

How does the steam engine work?

The steam to power a steam engine is made in a boiler that heats water to make steam. In most places fire heats the boiler. Fuel for the fire may be wood, coal, or petroleum. Nuclear energy or solar energy may be used instead of fire. The steam coming out of the boiler applies the force on a piston. A valve sends the steam to one end of the piston, then the other, to make it move backwards and forwards. Movement of the piston is then used to turn wheels or drive other machinery. The crosshead stops the piston rod from getting out of line when it pushes the connecting rod. The heavy spinning flywheel smooths out the power from the piston. The governor controls the speed of the engine.

The boilers of steam turbines can be heated by many different types of fuel, even a nuclear reactor in some power stations and warships.

Modern use

Today many steam engines are still at work, but they are almost all turbines which have no pistons but spin like a windmill pushed by jets of steam. These turn faster with more energy efficiency than the original kinds of piston steam engines. They are used in power plants to operate generators which make electricity. Some ships are also powered by steam turbines.

Boulton and Watt centrifugal governor-MJ
The governor: Boulton and Watt's important invention
Blue plaque Smethwick Engine
The plaque says it all

Images for kids

  • Stott Park Bobbin Mill Steam Engine

    A mill engine from Stott Park Bobbin Mill, Cumbria, England

  • 52 8134 Hoentrop 2012-09-16

    A steam locomotive from East Germany. This class of engine was built in 1942–1950 and operated until 1988.

  • Kemna road roller

    A steam ploughing engine by Kemna

  • Jacob Leupold Steam engine 1720

    Jacob Leupold's steam engine, 1720

  • Watt steam pumping engine

    Early Watt pumping engine

  • Steam powered road-locomotive from England

    Steam powered road-locomotive from England

  • Triple expansion marine steam engine

    A triple-expansion marine steam engine on the 1907 oceangoing tug Hercules

  • Union Pacific 844, Painted Rocks, NV, 2009 (crop)

    Union Pacific 844 a "FEF-3" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive

  • Dampfkessel für eine Stationärdampfmaschine im Textilmuseum Bocholt

    An industrial boiler used for a stationary steam engine

  • Steam indicator (Steam and the Steam Engine - Land and Marine, 1875)

    Richard's indicator instrument of 1875. See: Indicator diagram (below)

  • Triple expansion engine animation

    An animation of a simplified triple-expansion engine. High-pressure steam (red) enters from the boiler and passes through the engine, exhausting as low-pressure steam (blue), usually to a condenser.

  • Steam engine in action

    Double acting stationary engine. This was the common mill engine of the mid 19th century. Note the slide valve with concave, almost "D" shaped, underside.

  • Uniflow steam engine

    Animation of a uniflow steam engine. The poppet valves are controlled by the rotating camshaft at the top. High-pressure steam enters, red, and exhausts, yellow.

  • Dampfturbine Laeufer01

    A rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in a power plant

  • Turbinia At Speed

    Turbinia – the first steam turbine-powered ship

  • Aeolipile illustration

    An aeolipile rotates due to the steam escaping from the arms. No practical use was made of this effect.

  • Rankine cycle layout

    Flow diagram of the four main devices used in the Rankine cycle. 1) Feedwater pump 2) Boiler or steam generator 3) Turbine or engine 4) Condenser; where Q=heat and W=work. Most of the heat is rejected as waste.

  • GNR N2 1744 at Weybourne - geograph.org.uk - 1479849

    A steam locomotive – a GNR N2 Class No.1744 at Weybourne nr. Sheringham, Norfolk

  • Dampf-Fahrrad 2

    A steam-powered bicycle by John van de Riet, in Dortmund

  • Steam-powered fire engine

    British horse-drawn fire engine with steam-powered water pump

See also

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