Timeline of steam power facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Steam power is a super important invention that changed the world! It started with simple ideas hundreds of years ago. Over time, these ideas grew into powerful machines. These machines helped kick off the Industrial Revolution, making factories and transportation much faster and easier.

How Steam Power Grew
See also

How Steam Power Grew

Early Ideas

1st century AD: A smart inventor named Hero of Alexandria described a device called the Aeolipile. It was a spinning ball moved by steam. It didn't make much power, but it was the first known machine to use steam! He also showed how steam pressure could move water.
1125: In a city called Reims, an organ was said to be powered by heated water.
Late 15th century: The famous artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for a steam-powered cannon called the Architonnerre.
1551: Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf described a device like a steam turbine that could spin a meat spit.
1601: Giovanni Battista della Porta experimented with using steam to create pressure or a vacuum, making simple fountains.
1606: Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont got a patent for a steam-powered machine to pump water out of mines.
1615: Salomon de Caus published a book showing a steam device similar to Porta's.
1629: Giovanni Branca suggested using a steam turbine to power machines that crush things.
1630: David Ramsay received a patent for different ways to use steam, calling one a "fire engine."

Building a Practical Steam Engine

1663: Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquis of Worcester, invented a new steam pump. It used cooling to make steam turn into water, creating a vacuum that pulled water up. He built a huge one at Raglan Castle, which was probably the first "industrial" steam engine.
1680: Christiaan Huygens described an engine that used gunpowder to push a piston. This was the first known idea for a piston engine.
1698: Thomas Savery introduced his "Miner's Friend" steam pump. It was like Somerset's but later improved by spraying cold water directly inside the cylinder to make the steam condense faster. These pumps could lift water, but not very high. To lift water higher, they used steam pressure, but many mine owners worried about explosions.
Around 1705: Thomas Newcomen developed the atmospheric engine. Unlike Savery's pump, this engine used a piston. When cold water was sprayed into the cylinder, the steam turned to water, creating a vacuum that pulled the piston down. This allowed water to be pumped from much deeper mines. Newcomen teamed up with Savery because Savery had a broad patent on steam power.
1707: Denis Papin wrote about steam power, suggesting a piston pulled by a vacuum, but he couldn't build it.
1718: Jean Desaguliers improved Savery's engine with safety valves, but it wasn't used much commercially.

The Newcomen Engine: Steam Power in Action

1712: Newcomen installed his first engine for a customer.
1713: A boy named Humphrey Potter, who operated a Newcomen engine, came up with a simple way to make the engine open and close its valves automatically. This made the engine run much faster with less human effort!
1718: Henry Beighton made Potter's automatic system even better and more reliable.
1720: Leupold designed an engine that used expanding steam, but it seems none were built.
1733: Newcomen's patent ended. By this time, about 100 Newcomen engines were built. Over the next 50 years, many more were installed in mines across England, and also used to supply water to towns and power water wheels in factories.
1755: Josiah Hornblower installed the first Newcomen engine in the USA, at a copper mine in New Jersey.
1769: John Smeaton experimented with Newcomen engines and built improved ones that were more powerful, reaching up to 80 horsepower.
1775: About 600 Newcomen engines were working in the UK.
1779: The crank was first used on a Newcomen engine to create rotary motion (spinning motion).
1780-1800: Many more Newcomen engines were built, especially for mines and factories. Some even had later improvements added.

Watt's Amazing Engine

1765: James Watt invented the separate condenser. This was a huge step! In Newcomen engines, the main cylinder got cold with each spray of water. Watt's idea was to condense the steam in a separate, smaller container. This kept the main cylinder hot all the time, making the engine much more efficient and saving a lot of coal. Watt also sealed the top of the cylinder, using steam pressure to push the piston down.
1765: Matthew Boulton opened his Soho Manufactory engineering factory.
1765: Ivan Polzunov built a two-cylinder Newcomen engine in Russia with an automatic system to control the water level.
1769: James Watt got a patent for his improved design. At first, he had trouble finding someone to make perfectly round cylinders, which made his engine work poorly. But the efficiency increase was so good that he and his partner Matthew Boulton charged based on how much coal their engines saved.
1774: John Wilkinson invented a machine that could bore (drill) very precise cylinders. This was key for Watt's engines to work well.
1775: Watt and Boulton officially became partners. Watt's patent was extended until 1800.
1776: The first commercial Boulton and Watt engine was built.
1781: Jonathan Hornblower patented a "compound" engine with two cylinders, which was more efficient than Watt's early designs. However, Boulton and Watt were able to stop his patent in court.
1782: Watt built his first engine that could produce rotary motion (spinning a flywheel) using a special "sun and planet gear" system.
1783: Watt built his first "double acting" engine. This engine used steam to push the piston in both directions, making it even more powerful and smooth. He also invented a "parallel motion" linkage and used a governor to control the engine's speed. This made it perfect for driving machinery in mills and factories.
1784: William Murdoch showed off a model steam carriage (a car powered by steam). James Watt convinced him not to patent it.
1788: Watt built the first steam engine to use a centrifugal governor at the Boulton & Watt factory.
1790: Nathan Read invented the tubular boiler and improved cylinder, leading to high-pressure steam engines.
1791: Edward Bull made a simpler design by placing the steam engine directly above the mine pumps, removing the large beam.
1795: Boulton and Watt opened their Soho Foundry to build steam engines.
1799: Richard Trevithick built his first high-pressure engine in Cornwall.
1800: Watt's patent expired. By this time, about 450 Watt engines and over 1,500 Newcomen engines had been built in the UK.

Making Steam Power Even Stronger

1801: Richard Trevithick built and ran a steam-powered road engine.
1801: Oliver Evans built his first high-pressure steam engine in the U.S.
1804: Richard Trevithick built and ran a single-cylinder locomotive (train engine) on a tramway. It was too heavy for the tracks, so it was used as a stationary engine.
1804: Arthur Woolf brought back the two-cylinder "compound" engine designs, now that Watt's patents were gone. These engines became even more powerful as boiler pressures increased.
1808: Richard Trevithick showed off a passenger railway with his "steam circus" in London, using the locomotive Catch Me Who Can.
1812: Blenkinsop developed a rack railway system (where the train has a gear that meshes with a toothed rail for better grip).
1815: George Stephenson built his locomotive Blücher.
1825: Robert Stephenson & Co built Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, one of the first public railways.
1827: Timothy Hackworth built the very efficient Royal George locomotive.
1829: Robert Stephenson & Co won the famous Rainhill Trials with their locomotive The Rocket. This showed how fast and powerful steam locomotives could be!
1830: The "Stephensonian" locomotive design appeared, with horizontal cylinders. The Liverpool Manchester Line opened, showing the world the power of railways.
1849: George Henry Corliss developed the Corliss-type steam engine. It was much more efficient and could respond better to changes in load, making it great for factories like thread spinning mills.
1854: John Ramsbottom improved piston rings, allowing for much higher steam pressures.
1862: The Allen steam engine was shown, which was very precise and could run much faster than other engines, improving efficiency.
1862: The steam engine indicator was shown. This tool could draw a graph of the pressure inside the cylinder, helping engineers make engines more efficient.
1865: Auguste Mouchout invented the first device to turn solar energy into mechanical steam power, using the sun to boil water.
1867: Stephen Wilcox and George Herman Babcock patented the "Babcock & Wilcox Non-Explosive Boiler." This new boiler design used water inside tubes to make steam, which was safer and more efficient than older designs.
1881: Alexander C. Kirk used high-pressure boilers for the first practical triple expansion marine engine in the ship SS Aberdeen.
1884: Charles Algernon Parsons developed the steam turbine. Instead of pistons, turbines use bladed wheels that spin when high-pressure steam passes through them. Turbines were much more efficient, simpler, and lighter than piston engines. They eventually replaced piston engines for most electricity generation and ship power.
1893: Nikola Tesla patented a steam-powered oscillating generator, hoping it would compete with steam turbines.
1897: Stanley Brothers started selling lightweight steam cars.
1899: The Locomobile Company began making the first production steam-powered cars.
1902: The Stanley Motor Carriage Company began making the Stanley Steamer, the most popular steam-powered car.
1903: The Fisk Generating Station opened in Chicago, using huge Babcock & Wilcox boilers and GE Curtis turbines to generate electricity. From this time on, most electricity has been made using steam-driven turbine-generators.
1913: Nikola Tesla patented a bladeless steam turbine, but it wasn't used commercially.
1923: Alan Arnold Griffith published a theory that greatly improved the efficiency of all turbines, even helping to develop the jet engine.
1933: George and William Besler were the first (and so far, only) people to successfully fly an airplane using steam power!
2009: On August 25, 2009, Team Inspiration of the British Steam Car Challenge broke a very old speed record for a steam vehicle, reaching 139.843 miles per hour.
2009: On August 26, 2009, Team Inspiration broke another record, reaching 148.308 miles per hour.
Today, steam turbines are still used to generate huge amounts of electricity, some as powerful as 2,000,000 horsepower!