Quotes About Newcomen

In the early 1740s, Coalbrookdale replaced its own horse-driven pumps with a Newcomen engine, the first time a steam engine was used to make iron, and a major reduction in expense.54 From this point forward, mining advanced rapidly, as an increasing number of steam engines restored old mines previously drowned and kept new mines dry.55

Newcomen spent ten years experimenting with solutions to the problem of maintaining a regular and stable motion in his engine. None of his solutions was more innovative than his so-called plug rod.

The discovery of the power of injected water was luck; understanding and exploiting it was anything but. Newcomen and Calley replaced18 the accidental hole in the cylinder with an injection valve, and, ingeniously, attached it to the piston itself.