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The Steam Engine: Not One Part Of The Industrial Revolution

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The Steam Engine

"The wonderful progress of the present century is, in a very great degree, due to the invention and improvement of the steam engine, and to the ingenious application of its power to kinds of work that formerly taxed the physical energies of the human race."~Robert H. Thurston

The steam engine can easily be considered the single most important invention of the entire industrial revolution. There is not one part of industry present in today's society that can be examined without coming across some type of reference or dependence upon the steam engine. But, who deserves the credit for this great invention? Some give the credit to James Watt while others claim that Thomas Newcomen was the original inventor. …show more content…

It is believed that the first attempt to actually make steam use practical occurred in 1543 upon a naval ship. Blasco de Garay, a Spanish naval officer, attempted to move the paddle wheels of the ship with what could possibly be considered a steam engine. This account however is not well credited because nothing is really known about the make-up of the so called steam engine except that it contained a "vessel of boiling water." In 1601, Giovanni Battista della Porta described a machine that could be used to raise a column of water with the use of steam. He described this machine in a work entitled "Spiritali." Porta's work included a vacuum created by the condensation of steam into which water would flow. Porta's apparatus, was called the "Pneumatica." Porta's machine was described as being able to raise water with steam pressure. Although Porta's machine was never applied to any practical uses, he accurately described the necessary presence of a vacuum created by steam to raise the water. Another man that is mistakenly given a lot of credit for the invention of the steam engine is Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. The Marquis has been hailed as the originator of the machine that was used to raise water by the force of fire. However, the Marquis never actually built such a machine. The only machine

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