The History of Steam Engines

James Watt (1736-1819)

Engraving of James Watt

James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, born in Greenock, who was renowned for his improvements of the steam engine. In 1765, James Watt while working for the University of Glasgow was assigned the task of repairing a Newcomen engine, which was deemed inefficient but the best steam engine of its time. That started the inventor to work on several improvements to Newcomen's design.

Most notable was Watt's 1769 patent for a separate condenser connected to a cylinder by a valve. Unlike Newcomen's engine, Watt's design had a condenser that could be cool while the cylinder was hot. Watt's engine soon became the dominant design for all modern steam engines and helped bring about the Industrial Revolution.

A unit of power called the Watt was named after James Watt. the Watt symbol is W, and it is equal to 1/746 of a horsepower, or one Volt times one Amp. More...

The History of Steam Engines

Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729)

Illustration of Thomas Newcomen's Engine circa 1712


Thomas Newcomen was an English blacksmith, who invented the atmospheric steam engine, an improvement over Thomas Slavery's previous design.

The Newcomen steam engine used the force of atmospheric pressure to do the work. Thomas Newcomen's engine pumped steam into a cylinder. The steam was then condensed by cold water which created a vacuum on the inside of the cylinder. The resulting atmospheric pressure operated a piston, creating downward strokes. In Newcomen's engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam, unlike what Thomas Savery had patented in 1698.

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen together with John Calley built their first engine on top of a water filled mine shaft and used it to pump water out of the mine. The Newcomen engine was the predecessor to the Watt engine and it was one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700's. More...

The History of Steam Engines

Inventors: Thomas Savery

Thomas Savery's Steam Engine circa 1698Thomas Savery (1650-1715).Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679.


Thomas Savery had been working on solving the problem of pumping water out of coal mines, his machine consisted of a closed vessel filled with water into which steam under pressure was introduced. This forced the water upwards and out of the mine shaft. Then a cold water sprinkler was used to condense the steam. This created a vacuum which sucked more water out of the mine shaft through a bottom valve. More...

Engine

An engine is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion.

In common usage, an engine burns or otherwise consumes fuel, and is differentiated from an electric machine (i.e., electric motor) that derives power without changing the composition of matter. An engine may also serve as a "prime mover", a component that transforms the flow or changes in pressure of a fluid into mechanical energy. An automobile powered by an internal combustion engine may make use of various motors and pumps, but ultimately all such devices derive their power from the engine. The term "motor" was originally used to distinguish the new internal combustion engine-powered vehicles from earlier vehicles powered by steam engines, such as the steam roller and motor roller, but may be used to refer to any engine More...

Benz Patent-Motorwagen

The Karl Benz Patent-Motorwagen (or motorcar), built in 1885, is widely regarded as the first automobile, that is, a vehicle designed to be propelled by a motor.
The vehicle was awarded the German patent, number 37435, which Benz applied for on January 29, 1886. Following official procedures, the date of the application became the patent date for the invention once the patent was granted, which occurred in November of that year.
Benz officially unveiled his invention to the public on July 3, 1886 on the Ringstrasse (Ringstraße) in Mannheim, Germany.

After developing a successful gasoline-powered two-stroke piston engine in 1873, Benz focused on developing a motorized vehicle while maintaining a career as a designer and manufacturer of stationary engines and their associated parts.



The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled automobile with a rear-mounted engine. The vehicle contained many new inventions. It was constructed of steel tubing with woodwork panels. The steel-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires were Benz's own design. Steering was by way of a toothed rack that pivoted the unsprung front wheel. Fully elliptic springs were used at the back along with a live axle and chain drive on both sides. A simple belt system served as a single-speed transmission, varying torque between an open disc and drive disc.
Karl Benz - detail from gravestone
Working replica of the 1885 Benz Motorwagen in Frankfurt, 2007

The first Motorwagen used the Benz 954 cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine. This new engine produced ⅔ hp (½ kW) at 250 rpm in the Patent-Motorwagen, although later tests by the University of Mannheim showed it to be capable of .9 hp (0.7 kW) at 400 rpm. It was an extremely light engine for the time, weighing about 100 kg (220 lb). Although its open crankcase and drip oiling system would be alien to a modern mechanic, its use of a pushrod-operated poppet valve for exhaust would be quite familiar. A large horizontal flywheel stabilized the single-cylinder engine's power output. An evaporative carburettor was controlled by a sleeve valve to regulate power and engine speed.

Benz later built more models of the Motorwagen, model number 2 boasting 1.5 hp (1.1 kW), and model number 3 with 2 hp (1.5 kW), allowing the vehicle to reach a maximum speed of approximately 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). The chassis was improved in 1887 with the introduction of wooden-spoke wheels, a fuel tank, and a manual leather shoe brake on the rear wheels.
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The History of Mercedes

The history of Mercedes-Benz or for short Mercedes (and sometimes even "Benz" or "Merc") is quite interesting. Mercedes is a German company founded in 1871. In the beginning there were three people - Gottlieb Daimler together with Wilhelm Maybach and Karl Benz. Karl Benz and the other two were able to invent the automobile with internal combustion independently from each other. It is very interesting however that they were only sixty miles apart from each other in that time.

Karl Benz was working in Mannheim. He had a shop there which was the place where he invented the first real automobile driven by internal combustion. The year was 1885 and in the next year Karl Benz was granted a patent for his new creation.



The automobile was called "Benz Patent Motorwagen" and it had three wheels and the design reminds of a carriage hauled by horses perhaps because the main design model was taken from a carriage. The first engine Karl Benz patented in 1879 and it was designed by him.

Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were granted a patent a year before Karl Benz's internal combustion automobile model. The year was 1885 and the exact date - August 29. The engine they made is believed to be the first prototype of the today's gas engine and they called it "grandfather clock engine".

In the next year Gottlieb Daimler purchased a stagecoach in which he was planning to put the internal combustion engine. Many people made these purchases in that time but Gottlieb Daimler is perhaps the first one with the engine idea in mind. Daimler and Maybach worked together to adopt this stagecoach to fit the needs of the engine. The official words which Mercedes used for this model is "a carriage without horses". It is without horses but with conventional drawbar steering and internal combustion engine.


Soon after that in 1889 they built a complete model from scratch which was the first automobile powered by four-stoke engine. It was again with four wheels and after the founding of DMG in 1890 they were able to sell the first model of their automobile two years later in 1892.

On the other hand Karl Benz was able to sell his first model in 1888 - an year before Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach was able to build their model. Karl Benz did that after some refining of his model Motorwagen and maybe this gave him this advantage over the years because he did not started from scratch like Daimler and Maybach did.

In 1899 automobiles from Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft made in a city near Stuttgart took a part in a race driven by Emil Jellinek. Jellinek was a diplomat and a businessman and he was very enthusiastic about the whole idea around automobiles. In 1896 he went to see the designers Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach and soon after that he bought from them his first automobile car - the Phoenix. An interesting story about that car is that Emil Jellinek painted the name of his daughter Mercedes Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek on the car for good luck. Years after that a whole series of cars got that name.

Jellinek wanted faster cars and that the 1900 DMG was the first to bear his daughter name. It looks like Jellinek was obsessed by the idea of his daughter's name because he offered and made a contract for 550 000 marks for the purchase of 36 models of the new car with 35 hp engine only to see his daughter name on this car. The new engine was named Daimler-Mercedes engine containing like this only the name of the developer and Mercedes.

Very soon after that he made a deal for another 36 models but of another series - with 8 hp engines. After that on a higher price he was able to sell these models on the market in USA, Belgium, France and Austria-Hungary and that quickly made him be one of the biggest sellers of cars for that time.

Of course the name of his daughter Mercedes kept on showing on new models of automobiles like "Mercedes 35 hp". Jellinek's obsession by the name Mercedes grow up and he even change his own name to Jellinek-Mercedes. For eight years Jellinek took place in the meetings of the board of directors of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft from 1901 to 1909 but he retired from any activities linked to automobiles because of his diplomatic appointments.

In 1924 the two big companies DMG and Benz & Cie. finally began cooperating but due to World War I and the problems with the German economy in that time they were able to merge two years after that in 1926 and they used the name Daimler-Benz AG. Of course the name Mercedes was not lost. They began production of tracks and automobiles and they used the name Mercedes-Benz for them. From the part of Daimler they got the name Mercedes and Benz was from the part of the ex company Benz & Cie. A clause of the merging agreement compelled the two companies to stay together until 2000.

They focused on creating land models of vehicles but they also made engines for boats and planes for both civil and military organizations. They was able to make even Zeppelins powered by their engines and soon after that in 1929 Karl Benz died.

The company's most efforts were on creating limousine models and their glory is known today for that. Still they made some sport models like the early model of SSK designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Another product is the amazing Mercedes-Benz 300SL. With its gull-wing doors it was an interesting view.

Of course Mercedes-Benz made less expensive cars for the general public too. In Stuttgart they were able to create and test the Volkswagen models in cooperation with Porsche. Before that car a model called A-Class came in production. It is a small family car and maybe because of this the popular name of that car is Baby Benz. The first generation of Baby Benz was created in 1997 and years after that after redesign it appeared again in 2004.
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Who Invented the First Automobile?

The first automobile was invented in the 18th century, but was in one of its most primitive forms. However, who exactly invented the automobile is a very difficult question to answer. It was slowly improvised into a full fledged thing and no single person worked on it completely.

The first steam powered automobile was put together in the year 1630 and the first electric car was invented in the year 1830. In 1885, the first car to be driven on gasoline was invented. So, if anyone can be credited with the concept of a vehicle called a car it can be Ferdinand Verbiest, who built the steam powered car in 1672 and it was a gift to the emperor of China. He meant for it to be a toy.

Exactly after one century Nicholas and Joseph Cugnot designed a vehicle for the French Army. It was self propelled vehicle and could go at 2.5 miles per hour.

The first electric car was developed by Robert Anderson from Scotland. However, the batteries could not be recharged. Nonetheless, as time passed these vehicles became extremely popular as it was the only kind of automobile back then.

In the year 1880, the first automobile with an internal combustion engine was invented. Then, in 1885, Karl Benz came up with the first gasoline car and patented it. So, Benz is the father of automobiles in this world as far as gasoline run vehicles are concerned. After that there has been no looking back even now. Cars have only improvised on various technologies and have gotten better.
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