Misplaced Pages

Steam engine

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dave McKee (talk | contribs) at 22:33, 10 September 2001 (linked work). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 22:33, 10 September 2001 by Dave McKee (talk | contribs) (linked work)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

A device that converts the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, and converts that to mechanical force. Early examples were the steam locomotive trains, and steam ships that relied on these engines for movement. The Industrial Revolution came about primarily because of the steam engine.

The first steam device was invented by the Greeks before 300BC, but never utilized as anything other than a toy. Steam engines are of various types but most are reciprocal piston or turbine devices.

The strength of the steam engine for modern purposes is in its ability to convert raw heat into mechanical work. Most notably, without the use of a steam engine nuclear energy could not be harnessed for useful work, as a nuclear reactor does not directly generate either mechanical work or electrical energy - the reactor itself does nothing but sit there and get hot. It is the steam engine which converts that heat into useful work.