Watt Steam Engine
The Watt steam engine was the first type of steam engine to make use of a separate condenser. It was a vacuum or "atmospheric" engine using steam...
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Power & Energy · 26 entries
The Watt steam engine was the first type of steam engine to make use of a separate condenser. It was a vacuum or "atmospheric" engine using steam...
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Flowing water turns a wheel fitted with paddles or buckets, providing rotary power for mills, workshops and pumps. Long before steam engines, wat...
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A windmill captures wind with sails and transmits their rotation to machinery inside the building. Used for grinding grain and pumping water, it...
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The machinery and sails of a post mill sit inside a timber body that can turn around a central post. Rotating the whole mill to face the wind mad...
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A high-speed jet strikes the split buckets around a Pelton wheel, converting water's momentum into rotation. Developed for high-head water suppli...
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Water enters a Francis turbine through a surrounding casing and passes through a runner that combines inward and axial flow. This reaction turbin...
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The Kaplan turbine uses propeller-like runner blades whose pitch can change with operating conditions. Together with adjustable guide vanes, this...
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Thomas Savery's steam pump used condensation to draw water into a vessel, then steam pressure to push it upward. Patented in 1698, the pistonless...
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Steam condenses inside the cylinder of a Newcomen engine, creating a partial vacuum so atmospheric pressure can drive the piston down. Linked to...
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Instead of rows of blades, Tesla’s turbine uses closely spaced smooth discs. A fluid flowing through the narrow gaps transfers momentum to the di...
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Developed for mine drainage in Cornwall, the Cornish engine combined a beam mechanism with higher-pressure steam and expansive working. Its econo...
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A large beam rocks on a central pivot to transmit a steam piston's motion to pump rods or a connecting rod. The arrangement became a defining fea...
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The Corliss engine used separate steam admission and exhaust valves with a mechanism that varied the admission cut-off. This improved control of...
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A compound engine expands steam in successive cylinders rather than completing the expansion in just one. Sharing the pressure drop between stage...
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Steam flows through rows of blades to produce continuous rotation instead of the reciprocating motion of a piston engine. High rotational speeds...
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A Stirling engine repeatedly heats and cools a sealed working gas to move a piston. A regenerator stores and returns heat during the cycle, illus...
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The Otto engine organised intake, compression, power and exhaust into a four-stroke cycle. Its successful use of a compressed fuel-air charge hel...
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A diesel engine compresses air until it is hot enough to ignite fuel injected into the cylinder. The principle enabled efficient engines that bec...
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A gas turbine combines a compressor, combustion chamber and turbine in a continuous-flow engine. Hot combustion gases turn the turbine, which dri...
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A dynamo converts mechanical rotation into direct-current electricity using magnetic fields and a commutator. It connected engines and water turb...
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An electric motor turns electrical energy into mechanical motion through the interaction of currents and magnetic fields. As motors spread throug...
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An induction motor creates rotor currents through a rotating magnetic field rather than supplying the rotor directly through electrical contacts....
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A transformer transfers energy between electrical circuits through a changing magnetic field, allowing alternating-current voltage to be raised o...
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A rotating shaft distributed power from a central engine or waterwheel to machines through pulleys and belts. Line shafts shaped the layout of in...
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A hydraulic ram uses the pressure surge produced when moving water is suddenly checked to pump a smaller amount of water to a greater height. It...
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A weighted hydraulic accumulator stores energy by pumping water beneath a loaded plunger. As the weight descends it maintains pressure in a hydra...
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