The formation of a steam engine
Ancient ages
Steam power is well-known since ancient ages. Heron of Alexandria described the earliest known steam engine in the 1st century. Even though this invention is originated from Roman Empire – the most developed country in the world at the time, that sort of invention couldn't have spread across the country and there was no possibility for Roman industrialization. Even though they already knew how to use the energy of steam, they had serious economic restrictions[1], such as high prices on fuel and slavery. Thus, this invention was not required: it was much cheaper to use living force instead of fuel-consuming aeolipile, which, moreover, was not efficient enough[2], to be considered as a real thing. So that, despite all the economic potential, it was forgotten for ages, having no influence on the economics of the ancient world. Although the idea of using steam power was revolutionary and had potential, it didn't meet the reality of the time, so it was not adopted.
Middle ages and the Pre-industrial era
During the middle ages, the knowledge of steam power was forgotten. There is no clear evidence of the presence or existence of any kind of steam engine originated from the middle ages. This is not surprising. People were still learning about the energy of fire(i.e. usage of natural resources, like coal or peat) and the energy of water separately, so it's too early to speak about their combination. To understand the economic reasons for the existence of steam energy as an economic vector, to understand, what promoted the reinvention of the steam engine in such a way it becomes economically viable, we need to consider these two factors separately.
The energy of fire
To properly understand the economical development of the energy of fire, we need to consider the economical superpowers of the age. The leading nations were Dutch and Flemish, who are well-known for wide usage of windmills across their countries from about 1100's to 1700's. There, the Dutch applied wind power to a wide range of industrial processes, including paper production, wood sawing, glass polishing and cement production.[3] Wind-power was very important for Dutch economy, but it actually explains only a half way they became the economy dominant of the time. Windmills give us only kinetic energy, which is not enough for the successful manufacture. To give an example: with wind-power it's possible to grind millet or to polish glass, but it's impossible to bake a bread or to produce glass itself. For such processes thermal energy is required. In this sphere Dutchmen were very successful and they were ahead of the rest of the world.
Peat
It's commonly believed, that during pre-industrial era to achieve high temperatures only wood was used. But natural wood sources of, for instance, Holland were virtually vanished by 1600s, so it would be impossible to keep the variety of manufacture branches, such as bricks, tiles, ceramics and clay pipes production, dependent on the wood, since these are very energy-consuming. The same problem suffered Flanders few centuries above. The obvious solution for both was to find alternative resources, and to mine them in a great amount. Such alternative became peat, which is an intermediate step in the formation of coal, peat forms when plant material, usually in marshy areas, does not decay fully because of a lack of oxygen. This semicarbonised fuel can be found near the earth's surface in layers of up to 5 meters thick. The energy density of dried and pressed peat - known as "turf" - is about 15 to 17 MJ per kg, which is similar to the energy density of dried wood (15 to 18 MJ/kg) but lower than that of coal (24 MJ/kg) or charcoal (up to 29 MJ/kg).[4]
Initially, large-scale peat digging started in the coastal area of Flanders, however peat bogs there were exhausted by the end of the 15th century. Around 1530s Dutch peat bogs faced the same destiny, which led to the enormously high prices on peat. These circumstances led to the discovering of the new ways of peat digging. Dutch started to mine peat from below the water table, what as in a result turned hectares of land into water. In total, peat digging would turn more than 60,000 hectares (600 km2) of land into water in Holland and Utrecht - almost 10 percent of their total surface area.[5] While most other countries in Europe were entirely dependent on wood, the opening of the peat bogs in the northern provinces from the 1580s onwards meant that the Dutch had a cheap energy source that was widely available - which had become ever more expensive as deforestation advanced. The Netherlands' ample fuel reserves stimulated the development of various fuel-intensive and export-oriented industries. In case of Holland this alternative source of energy was the best possible solution and was one of main reasons of their economical wellness.[6] Therefore, the accessibility of energy is vital. There was no chance that steam energy could appear in countries where there was a shortage of fuel, or where it was too expensive.
Coal
Peat was not the only fossil fuel which was mining across the Europe. Coal mining started in 13th century on British isles and on the territory of today's French-speaking part of Belgium. Coal was highly-wanted for its efficiency and production of a great amount of energy while burning. It was good for blacksmithing and lime manufacturing. However, coal was never a perfect source of energy. Its smoke is much dirtier, comparing to wood's or turf's, and it was even forbidden in England for some time because of the air coal-caused pollution. However, growing manufacture and thinning forests made Englishmen to return to the idea of usage of coal.
Initially, coal could not be used in most production processes, where it would contact and ruin the product with coal's impurities - notably sulfur. But English manufactures were improving their production processes, so they caught Dutch up. At the dawn of the 18th century, they came through the turning point: they transferred the last and the most important manufacture of coal - the iron production.[7]
Thus, the energy of fire was learnt and was ready to be widely-used. People learnt how to produce extremely high thermal energy, but not yet how to turn it into mechanical energy.
The energy of water
In the 18th century, falling water was the main source of energy in the European Community, not derived from the muscular strength of animals. Wind played an important role in the open spaces of northwestern Europe, but it was usually a less reliable source of energy than water, and its areas of application were more limited. Thus, water was the main source of kinetic energy.
Middle Ages
The kinetic energy of water has been used across the world since ancient ages. It was most commonly used via watermills of different waterwheel designs (horizontal, undershot, overshot). In the late 11th century in the England there were around 5600 watermills[8], so we can conclude, that water energy was used for milling flour mainly and was economically vital ever since the middle ages. One of the most important types of hydro-powered mills are tide mills — built along coastal areas, powered by undershot waterwheels that drew their energy from the rising and falling of the tides rather than from the steady flow of rivers. It's important to say, that hydro energy was used not only in British isles, or Europe – this type of energy was used worldwide.
The Pre-industrial Era
Hydro energy was not loosing its positions during the ages. Actually, hydro energy played the key role and was the driving force of the first stages of the industrial revolution in Britain. Water-powered reciprocating devices operated trip hammers and blast furnace bellows in the iron industry—crucial to early industrialization. Waterwheels built in this period were often larger than their predecessors and constructed with iron rather than wood, generating more power and allowing for higher production.[9] Hydro energy made a great influence on the textile manufacture of the late 18th century in Britain. One of the most significant inventions was a "water frame" by Richard Arkwright. These inventions are incredibly important for the future concepts of steam engines, since they show how kinetic energy of water may be effectively, and, moreover, economically efficient used in facilities. These achievements and discoveries are the foundation, which led to the applying steam power in real manufactures in the future. The only step remaining is to merge the thermal energy of fire and the kinetic energy of water.
The formation of the steam engine
Foundation
European miners during the Renaissance, were digging into the ground in search of ore. However, they faced obstacles, water in particular. If it could not be removed as quickly as it arrived, it would eventually flood the mine, rendering it useless. The deeper the mine, the more problematic the water was. For centuries, miners have developed a variety of devices to get rid of this obstacle, from the simplest chains of workers with buckets to complex lifting devices.[10]
The history of the Rammelsberg mine in central Germany is a prime example of applying sophisticated mechanisms for water removal. These developments are most likely the oldest known concepts, which led to the steam engine invention. In the 12th century, they had to dig an inclined drainage tunnel, or adit, about 800 meters long, connecting the mine with the mountainside. This project took 30 years to complete. The workers had to carry water in buckets from the lower parts of the mine to the mouth of the adit. However, this method could not have existed for very long, and the mine was abandoned until the 14th century. The new owners built there a mechanical system for raising water, set in motion by the muscular power of people using a wheel. In the next century, another, deeper adit was dug in the mine - this time it was dug for almost a hundred years. After that, canals were built connecting the drying machines to the mine. By this time, the miners had buried almost 300 meters deep.
But drainage systems like the one used at Rammelsberg were only suitable for elevations where a tunnel could be dug from the inside of the shaft outward to a point below. Mines that were not located in mountains or hills were more dependent on mechanisms that raised water.
Suction pump
The pumping of water from mines and the steam engine invention are strongly connected by the suction pump. For the first time in European literature, the suction pump appeared in the unpublished notes of the Italian engineer Mariano di Jacopo. His description differed from a pressure pump in that instead of pushing the water upward, he pulled it with a piston in an outside pipe. One or more valves in the piston allowed the water to rise above it as the piston sank back into the water with each downward movement. Since such a mechanism was located above the ground, and not inside a liquid, it was easy to connect it to a power source. However, it could not raise water upper then 10 meters. The first alternative explanation for the operation of the suction pump was proposed by the Dutch natural philosopher Isaac Beckmann, one of the first mentors of Descartes. He wrote in his journal in the early 1610s that "the air presses on all things and compresses them according to the air above them." And the perceived force of the vacuum is actually the force of the surrounding air.
In 1661, Otto von Guericke produced the first reverse suction pump, lifting weight with a piston by drawing the air out from under it with a suction pump. This was a fine demonstration of the weight of the air. These discoveries became the theoretical foundation of the steam engine.
Steam energy
Both Heron’s engine and the aeolipile, discussed below, used steam power as a kind of wind, but the new science of pressure in the seventeenth century drew new attention to the potential of steam, as a fluid that could shrink and expand. The very first implementation of a very simple steam engine belongs to Denis Papin, though it was not quite successful. This implementation was useless in real life. However, his work continued Thomas Newcomen. After years of experiments, he managed to make his engine entirely self-acting – all the valves that controlled the admittance and expelling of steam were controlled by pegs on a rod moved by the action of the engine itself. Cold water needed to quench the steam was accounted for too, with a small auxiliary pump that drew water out of the sump where it drained after leaving the cylinder up to a tank above the engine, where it could descend by gravity to be used again.
References
- ↑ William C., Morey. Outlines of Roman History. Search this book on
- ↑ "The first steam engine by Heron Alexandria". Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Wind powered factories: the history and future of the industrial windmill". Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Medieval smokestacks: fossil fuels in pre-industrial times". Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Vries, Jan (1997). The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815. Search this book on
- ↑ J.W. de Zeeuw (1978). Peat and the Dutch golden age. Search this book on
- ↑ David, Ormrod (2003). The Rise of Commercial Empires: England and the Netherlands in the Age of Mercantilism, 1650-1770. Search this book on
- ↑ Domesday Book. Search this book on
- ↑ "Hydro Power from the Early Modern to the Industrial Age: ca. 1500–1850". Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ De re metallica. Search this book on
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