Russia's first two-cylinder vacuum steam engine was designed by mechanic I.I. Polzunov in 1763 and built in 1764 in Barnaul. James Watt, who was a member of the commission for accepting Polzunov's invention, received a patent for a steam engine in London in April 1784 and is considered its inventor!

Polzunov, Ivan Ivanovich

- mechanic who built the first steam engine in Russia; the son of a soldier of the Yekaterinburg mountain companies, he was ten years old and entered the Yekaterinburg Arithmetic School, where he graduated from the course with the title of mechanical student. Among several young people, Polzunov was sent to Barnaul to state-owned mining factories, where in 1763 he was a charge master. While engaged in the construction of machines with water engines used in smelters and mines, Polzunov drew attention to the difficulty of constructing such machines in areas remote from rivers, and settled on the idea of ​​​​using steam as an engine. There is some evidence that suggests that this idea did not come to him independently, but under the influence of Schlatter’s book: “Detailed instructions for mining” (St. Petersburg, 1760), in the tenth chapter of which the first description of a steam engine, namely a machine, was published in Russian Newcomen. Polzunov energetically set about implementing his idea, began to study the power and properties of water vapor, drew up drawings, and made models. Having become convinced, after lengthy research and experiments, of the possibility of replacing the driving force of water with the power of steam and proving this on models, Polzunov in April 1763 turned to the head of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk factories, Major General A. I. Poroshin, with a letter in which , having outlined the motives that prompted him to find a new force, asked for funds to build the one he had invented " fire engine". Polzunov's project was reported to Her Majesty's Cabinet with a request to release the amount needed for the construction of the machine. According to the Cabinet's report, a decree of Catherine II followed, by which she, “for greater encouragement,” granted Polzunov to the mechanics with a salary and the rank of engineering captain-lieutenant , ordered 400 rubles as a reward and indicated, “if he is not needed at the factories, he should be sent to St. Petersburg, with silver” for two to three years to the Academy of Sciences, to supplement his education. But the authorities did not let Polzunov go and asked to send him to the Academy of Sciences was canceled for a while, “because there is an extreme need for it here, to bring that steam-powered machine into practice." In view of this, Polzunov had to stay in Siberia until the end of the case. Until then, the issuance of the above-mentioned 400 rubles was also postponed. According to the estimate he submitted, he was given the necessary sums and materials, and he was given the opportunity to begin construction.On May 20, 1765, Polzunov already reported that preparatory work completed, and that the machine would be put into operation in October of the same year. But the car was not ready by this time. A host of unforeseen difficulties and the inexperience of the workers slowed down the progress of the work. In addition, many of the materials needed to build the machine could not be obtained in Siberia. I had to order them from Yekaterinburg and wait for delivery for several months. In December 1765, Polzunov completed the machine, spending 7,435 rubles on it. 51 kopecks However, he was unable to see his invention in action. The test of the machine was scheduled in Barnaul for May 20, 1766, and on May 16 of the same year Polzunov had already died “from severe laryngeal bleeding.” Polzunov’s machine, under the leadership of his students Levzin and Chernitsin, melted 9,335 points of Zniznogorsk ores in Barnaul within two months, but soon its operation in Barnaul was terminated “as unnecessary,” and there is no information whether it was used on those that did not have water-powered engines Zmeinogorsk plant and Semenovsky mine, where it was originally intended by the inventor himself and his superiors. In 1780, “the machine and the structure, built by Polzunov, operated in pairs, and the structure were broken.” The Barnaul Mining Museum has a model of Polzunov's machine. Polzunov cannot be credited, as some do, with the honor of inventing the first steam engine. Nevertheless, Polzunov’s machine was indeed the first steam engine built in Russia, and not imported from abroad; the use of a steam engine in 1765 not for lifting water, but for another industrial purpose, should be considered an independent invention, since in England the first use of a steam engine for pumping air was made only in 1765.

People were able to put steam to the service of humanity only at the very end of the 17th century. But even at the beginning of our era, the ancient Greek mathematician and mechanic Heron of Alexandria clearly showed that one can and should be friends with steam. A clear confirmation of this was the Geronovsky aeolipile, in fact, the first steam turbine- a ball that rotated with the force of jets of water vapor. Unfortunately, many amazing inventions of the ancient Greeks were firmly forgotten for many centuries. Only in the 17th century is there a description of something similar to a steam engine. The Frenchman Salomon de Caus, who was at one time a builder and engineer for Frederick V of the Palatinate, in his essay dated 1615, described a hollow iron ball with two tubes: one receiving and one releasing liquid. If you fill the ball with water and heat it up, then through the second tube the water will begin to rise to the top, obeying the influence of vapors. In 1663, the Englishman Edward Somerset, Marquess of Worchester, wrote a brochure in which he spoke about a machine that could lift water upward. At the same time, Somerset received a patent (“privilege”) for the described machine. As we see, all the thoughts of the inventors of the New Age revolved around pumping water from mines and mines, which, it should be noted, stemmed from an urgent task. It is therefore not surprising that the next three inventors, discussed below, were also primarily concerned with creating a steam engine for pumping water. Towards the very end of the 17th century, two people in Europe worked more effectively on taming steam - Denis Papin and Thomas Savery.

Savery's "fire" car.

On July 2, 1698, the Englishman Savery received a patent for a machine for pumping water from mines. The patent stated: “Privilege is claimed to Thomas Savery for having alone tested a new invention for raising water, turning all kinds of mills by the forces of fire, which will be very important for draining mines, supplying cities with water and turning all kinds of mills.” Prototype Under the name "Fire engine" in 1699 it was exhibited at the Royal Scientific Society in London. Savery's machine operated in this way: a sealed tank was filled with steam, and then the outer surface of the tank was cooled with cold water, which caused the steam to condense, creating a partial vacuum in the tank. Then water from the bottom of the shaft was sucked into the tank through the intake pipe and, after a new portion of steam was introduced, it was pushed out through the outlet pipe. It is worth noting that Savery's invention was similar to Somerset's machine, and many believe that Savery was directly inspired by the latter. Unfortunately, Savery's "fiery" machine had its shortcomings. The most important of them is the inability to raise water from a depth of more than 15 meters, although at that time there were already mines whose depth exceeded 100 meters. In addition, the car consumed a lot of fuel, which was not justified even by proximity large quantity coal at the mine. The Frenchman Denis Papin, a physician by training, moved to London in 1675. Papen made several discoveries that forever inscribed his name in history. To begin with, Papen invents a pressure cooker - “Papen's Cauldron”. The former physician was able to establish the relationship between pressure and boiling point of water. Sealed boiler with safety valve thanks to high blood pressure inside, he brought the water to a boil much later, so the temperature of processing the products increased and the latter cooked many times faster. In 1674, Papin created a gunpowder engine: gunpowder was ignited in a cylinder, causing the piston inside the cylinder to move. One "batch" of gases was released from the cylinder through special valve, and the other was cooling. A vacuum (albeit weak) was formed in the cylinder, and atmospheric pressure pushed the piston down. In 1698, Papin invented a steam engine using water that was heated inside a vertical cylinder - the resulting steam moved the piston upward. The cylinder was then cooled with water, the steam condensed and a vacuum was created. The same atmospheric pressure forced the piston down. Despite the progressiveness of his machine (the presence of a piston), Papin was unable to extract any significant dividends from it, since Savery patented a steam pump, and there were no other applications for steam engines at that time (although Savery’s patent indicated the possibility of “rotation mills"). In 1714, in the capital of the British Empire, Papen died in poverty and loneliness. Another Englishman, Thomas Newcomen, born in 1663, turned out to be much more successful. Newcomen carefully read the works of both Savery and Papin, which is why he was able to understand weak spots previous cars, while taking the best from them. In 1712, together with glassmaker and plumber John Calley, he built his first steam engine. It used a vertical cylinder with a piston, like Papin's machine. However, the steam was generated in a separate steam boiler, which was similar to the operating principle of Savery's "fire" engine. The tightness inside the steam cylinder was increased by a skin that was secured around the piston. Newcomen's machine was also steam-atmospheric, i.e. The rise of water from the mine was carried out under the influence of atmospheric pressure. It was quite bulky and “ate” a lot of coal. Nevertheless, Newcomen’s machine brought incomparably more practical benefits, which is why it was used in mines for almost half a century. In England, for example, it allowed the reopening of abandoned mines that were flooded with groundwater. And another striking example of the effectiveness of Newcomen’s machine - in 1722 in Kronstadt, in a dry dock, water was pumped out of a ship within two weeks, while with an outdated pumping system using windmills it would have taken a year. Despite all this, Thomas Newcomen did not receive a patent for his steam engine because of Savery's patent. The possibility of using Newcomen's steam engine to propel a vehicle was considered by designers, in particular, to drive a paddle wheel on a ship. However, the attempts were unsuccessful. James Watt had the opportunity to invent a compact but powerful steam engine. In 1763, Watt, a mechanic at the University of Glasgow, was given the task of repairing Newcomen's steam engine. During the repair process, Watt comes up with the following idea - the cylinder of the steam engine must be kept constantly heated, which will sharply reduce fuel consumption. All that remained was to understand how to condense the steam in this case. It dawned on Watt while he was taking his evening exercise near the laundries. Seeing clouds of steam trying to escape from under the boiler covers, the inventor suddenly realized that steam was a gas, and it must move into a cylinder with low blood pressure. Watt takes up the matter decisively. He uses a water pump and metal tubes, from which the pump will pump out water and steam, creating a reduced pressure in the latter, and this, from the tubes, will begin to be transferred to the working cylinder of the steam engine. For the power stroke, Watt uses steam pressure, thereby abandoning atmospheric pressure, which was a big step forward. For this purpose, to prevent steam from passing between the cylinder and the piston, a hemp rope soaked in oil was wrapped around the piston along special grooves. This method made it possible to achieve a fairly high tightness inside the steam cylinder. In 1769, Watt received a patent for the "creation steam engine, in which the temperature of the engine will always be equal to the temperature of the steam, despite the fact that the steam will be cooled to a temperature below one hundred degrees." In 1772, James Watt made the acquaintance of the industrialist Matthew Bolton. This rich gentleman bought and returned everything to Watt his patents, which the hapless inventor was forced to pawn for debts. With Bolton's support, Watt's work accelerated. Already in 1773, Watt was testing his steam engine; it performed the same function of a steam pump, but required much less coal. Seeing the obvious advantages of Watt's machine , Bolton opened a company jointly with the inventor for the production of steam engines, and their production began in England in 1774. Sales of steam engines went so well that Bolton wanted to build a new rolling shop, for which he asked Watt to create a special steam engine - to drive rolling machines Watt coped with the task brilliantly, and in 1781 he patented a steam engine “for moving around an axis for the purpose of driving other machines.” Thus, the first steam engine was born not to raise water from the bottom of mines, but to set machines in motion. Watt's new machine had a number of improvements. For example, a regulator for uniform rotation of the main shaft of a steam engine, as well as a planetary mechanism for creating circular motion. The last Watt invents because to apply crank mechanism he is not allowed to do so by a valid patent. But in 1784, Watt still managed to obtain permission to use a crank mechanism in a steam engine. Thus, the world's first universal steam engine, created by Watt, began to drive industrial machines, heralding the advent of the era of steam engines. Very soon, steam will begin to move steamships and trains, thanks to which human life will radically change. The enormous merits of James Watt did not go unnoticed by posterity - in 1819, by order of the English Parliament, a marble monument was erected to the great inventor in Westminster Abbey. It is believed that the first steamboat was built by the American Robert Fulton in 1807 - his ship with a paddle wheel was called the Claremont. At first, Fulton tried to use steam to propel the oars, but then turned to the more successful idea of ​​a wheel. Fulton made his first voyage on the Claremont alone, since the residents of the surrounding area flatly refused to board the “devilishly” smoking vessel. But on way back One brave man finally approached Fulton, for which he received from the inventor the right to lifelong free travel on the Claremont. Then Fulton's ship's voyages became commonplace - the Claremont transported people along the Hudson River from New York to Albany, reaching a speed of about 5 knots (9 km/h). The first screw steamship was built in 1838 by the Englishman Francis Smith. The use of propellers instead of paddle wheels has significantly improved ride quality steamships. Auxiliary sails are gradually disappearing on steamships (remember that in 1819 the American steamship Savannah crossed the Atlantic Ocean mostly with the help of sails), and by the beginning of the 20th century, sailing ships themselves were becoming history. The first steam locomotive was built by Briton Richard Trevithick. It was a steam-powered carriage moving on rails at a speed of 7 km/h and carrying a train weighing 7 tons. In 1804, a small railway was built in London to test the Trevithick steam locomotive. In our time, both steamships and steam locomotives have long become a historical curiosity, which, however, can be found in the most different countries. Thus, in Norway, on Lake Mjøs, the oldest paddle steamer in the world, the Skibladner, built back in 1856, still operates. In turn, steam locomotives are actively used in third world countries, which means that steam still faithfully serves humanity.

"Steam Cart" by Cugno.

A separate milestone in the history of steam - steam cars. The first working steam car ("steam cart") was built by the Frenchman Nicolas-Joseph Cugot (Cugot) in 1769. It was a very heavy cart, weighing more than a ton, which two people could barely handle. Aesthetically, the car did not look very beautiful - the boiler, like a pot on a handle, was placed in front of the vehicle. Cugno's "cart" developed a speed of about 2-4 km/h and could carry up to 3 tons of cargo. It was difficult to operate - to maintain the steam pressure, which was rapidly falling, it was necessary to stop and light the firebox every quarter of an hour. In the end, in the next test drive, Cugnot and the fireman (by the way, the fireman in French sounds like “chauffeur”, which is where the word “chauffeur” came from) suffered an accident on sharp turn, causing the boiler to explode, causing noise throughout Paris. Cunho built a new “cart”, but it did not reach the masses. In 1794 it was handed over to the museum. Another Frenchman, Leon Serpollet, made a significant contribution to the development of steam engines. In 1875, he created a small but powerful steam car. Leon decided that it was better to heat the water not in a boiler, but in heated tubes, where it turns into steam very quickly. Serpolle's first working vehicle was a two-seater, three-wheeled carriage made of wood. At first, the police forbade the Frenchman to travel even at night, but in 1888 they finally gave in and issued an official document with permission to travel. Serpollet did not stop there. Instead of coal, he starts using liquid fuel, which was supplied to two burners. In 1900, he opened a company together with the American Frank Gardner - Gardner-Serpollet. In 1902, Serpollet created a racing steam car and set a world land speed record with it in Nice - 120.77 km/h. It is not surprising that at that time steam cars competed quite successfully with their gasoline and electric counterparts. The first ones flourished especially in the USA, where, for example, in 1900 they produced 1690 steam, 1585 electric and only 936 gasoline cars. Steam cars were used in the USA until the 1930s. In the first half of the 19th century, steam tractors were also built, in particular with tracked. However, the coefficient useful action steam engines accounted for only 5%. For this reason, at the beginning of the twentieth century, steam engines in cars were replaced by engines internal combustion. With their help, cars have become more economical, lighter and faster. It is impossible not to mention other, less successful uses of steam at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The widespread use of steamships, steam locomotives and steam cars prompted inventors to think that steam could be used in aviation and the army. Alas, steam was not useful in these areas. Although by the middle of the 19th century there were several attempts to create airplanes with a steam engine. The Englishman William Henson built the Ariel Steam Carridge, which had a 25-30 hp steam engine that powered propellers with a diameter of 3.05 m. To reduce the weight of the machine, the conventional boiler was replaced by a conical vessel system using an air condenser. In 1844-1847, Henson tested his airplanes without success. They all ended unsuccessfully. But already in 1848, John Stringfellow finally built an airplane that took off from the ground, although not for long. The apotheosis of “ferry mania” in the aircraft industry was the Hayrem Stevens Maxim airplane, which had a steam engine with a power of 360 hp and could be compared in size to a two-story house. It is not surprising that Maxim’s airplane collapsed overnight, like all man’s dreams of conquering the air with the help of steam. Although, we note that in 1896, the American Samuel Pierpont Langley nevertheless built an airplane with a steam engine, which flew for about a kilometer without a pilot until it ran out of fuel. Langley called his creation an “airfield” (translated from ancient Greek as “running in the air”). However, by the beginning of the 20th century, it was clear to everyone that bulky steam engines were not suitable for aeronautics, especially since by this time gasoline engines had proven themselves excellent in airplanes - on December 17, 1903, the famous Wright Brothers airplane, equipped with a gasoline engine, appeared in the sky. Things were no better with steam in the army. But Leonardo da Vinci himself described a cannon that fired projectiles with the force of only fire and water. The great Florentine suggested that a long copper barrel with a core, placed in a furnace at one end, could eject a projectile if a little water was injected into the compartment behind the core when the tube became very hot. Leonardo believed that water at such a high temperature would evaporate very quickly and, becoming an analogue of gunpowder, would push the cannonball out at great speed. It is worth noting that the idea of ​​the steam gun is attributed to Archimedes. The ancient manuscripts mention that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Roman ships were fired from cannons. But there was no gunpowder in Europe then! And Leonardo da Vinci suggested that Archimedes, whose devices defended Syracuse, had steam cannons. The Greek engineer Ionis Sakkas decided to test this idea of ​​da Vinci. He built a wooden cannon, to the back of which was attached a boiler heated to 400°C. As suggested by Leonardo da Vinci, water was supplied to a special valve, which, evaporating instantly, burst into steam into the barrel, causing the concrete core in Sakkas’s experiments to fly away to a distance of 30-40 m. Students from MIT and participants in the television series “MythBusters,” although without the success of Sakkas. In the 19th century, steam was again used, but it was not possible to create a truly combat-ready weapon (a cannon or a machine gun). In 1826-1829, the Russian engineer-colonel of the Railway Corps A. Karelin manufactured a copper 7-line (17.5 mm) experimental steam gun. Shooting was carried out with ball bullets using water vapor, the rate of fire reached 50 rounds per minute. But the tests carried out in 1829 did not impress the “selection committee”, which considered the gun too complicated for use in the field. At the end of this article, it is impossible not to mention steampunk (English: "steampunk", from "steam" - "steam" and "punk" - "protest"). This direction of science fiction describes the era of steam from Victorian England (second half of the 19th century) and early capitalism (early 20th century). Cityscapes, characters, public moods, etc. are described accordingly. The term itself appeared in 1987. The steampunk genre gained popularity after the appearance of the novel " Difference machine"William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990). The forerunners of steampunk can be called Jules Verne and Grigory Adamov. In last years Many steampunk films have appeared, the most famous of which are “Wild Wild West” (1999), “The Time Machine” (2002), “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (2003) and “Van Helsing” (2004). Dieselpunk is chronologically adjacent to steampunk - a genre that describes the technological world of the 20-50s of the 20th century, very close, it should be noted, to the technoworld of the early 20th century.

Introduction

Until the second half of the 18th century, people mainly used water engines for production needs. So how to transmit mechanical movement from the water wheel to long distances impossible, all factories had to be built on the banks of rivers, which was not always convenient. In addition, for efficient work such an engine often required expensive preparatory work (installation of ponds, construction of dams, etc.). Water wheels also had other disadvantages: they had low power, their work depended on the time of year and was difficult to regulate. Gradually, the need for a fundamentally new engine began to be urgently felt: powerful, cheap, autonomous and easy to control. The steam engine became just such an engine for humans for a whole century.

Steam machine-- heat engine external combustion, converting the energy of heated steam into mechanical work the reciprocating movement of the piston, and then into the rotational movement of the shaft. In a broader sense, a steam engine is any external combustion engine that converts steam energy into mechanical work.

History of the creation of steam engines

The idea of ​​a steam engine was partly suggested to its inventors by the design of a piston water pump, which was known in antiquity.

The principle of its operation was very simple: when the piston rose up, water was sucked into the cylinder through a valve at its bottom. The side valve connecting the cylinder with the water-lifting pipe was closed at this time, since water from this pipe also tried to enter inside the cylinder and thereby closed this valve. When the piston was lowered, it began to put pressure on the water in the cylinder, due to which the bottom valve closed and the side valve opened. At this time, water from the cylinder was supplied upward through a water-lifting pipe. In a piston pump, work received from outside was used to move fluid through the pump cylinder. The inventors of the steam engine tried to use the same design, but only in reverse direction. The piston cylinder is the basis of all steam engines. piston engines. The first steam engines, however, were not so much engines as steam pumps used to pump water from deep mines. The principle of their operation was based on the fact that after cooling and condensing into water, the steam occupied 170 times less space than in the heated state. If you displace air from a vessel with heated steam, close it, and then cool the steam, the pressure inside the vessel will be significantly less than outside. External atmospheric pressure will compress such a vessel, and if a piston is placed in it, it will move inward with greater force, the larger its area.

The first model of such a machine was proposed in 1690 by Papen. Denis Papin was an assistant to Huygens, and from 1688 a professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg. He came up with the idea of ​​using a hollow cylinder with a moving piston for an atmospheric engine. Papin was faced with the task of forcing the piston to do work by the force of atmospheric pressure. In 1690 it was created in principle new project steam engine. When heated, the water in the cylinder turned into steam and moved the piston upward. Through a special valve, the steam pushed out air, and when the steam condensed, a rarefied space was created; external pressure moved the piston down. As the piston descended, it pulled a rope with a load behind it. Papin placed the machine cylinder vertically because the valve cylinder could not perform its function in any other position. The Papen engine performed useful work poorly, since it could not carry out continuous action. To force the piston to lift the load, it was necessary to manipulate the valve rod and stopper, move the flame source and cool the cylinder with water.

Thomas Severi continued the improvement of steam-atmospheric machines. In 1698, Thomas Savery invented a steam pump to pump water out of mines. His “friend of the miners” worked without a piston. The absorption of water occurred by condensing steam and creating a rarefied space above the water level in the vessel. Severi separated the boiler from the vessel where the condensation was carried out. This steam engine had low efficiency, but still found wide application.

But the most widely used in the first half of the 18th century was Newcomen’s steam engine, created in 1711. Steam cylinder was placed at Newcomen's over the steam boiler. The piston rod (the rod connected to the piston) was connected by a flexible link to the end of the balancer. The pump rod was connected to the other end of the balancer. The piston rose to the upper position under the action of a counterweight attached to the opposite end of the balancer. In addition, the upward movement of the piston was aided by steam released into the cylinder at this time. When the piston was in its highest position, the valve that admitted steam from the boiler into the cylinder was closed, and water was sprayed into the cylinder. Under the influence of this water, the steam in the cylinder quickly cooled, condensed, and the pressure in the cylinder dropped. Due to the created pressure difference inside and outside the cylinder, the force of atmospheric pressure moved the piston down, doing useful work - it set in motion the balancer, which moved the pump rod. Thus, useful work was performed only when the piston moved downward. Then steam was released into the cylinder again. The piston rose again, and the entire cylinder was filled with steam. When water was sprayed again, the steam condensed again, after which the piston made another useful downward movement, and so on. In fact, in Newcomen's machine, work was done by atmospheric pressure, and steam served only to create a rarefied space.

In the light of the further development of the steam engine, the main drawback of Newcomen’s machine becomes clear: the working cylinder in it was at the same time a capacitor. Because of this, it was necessary to alternately cool and then heat the cylinder and the fuel consumption was very high. There were cases when there were 50 horses with the car, which barely had time to transport the necessary fuel. The efficiency of this machine hardly exceeded 1%. In other words, 99% of all calorific energy was lost fruitlessly. Nevertheless, this machine became widespread in England, especially in the mines where coal was cheap. Subsequent inventors made several improvements to the Newcomen pump. In particular, in 1718, Beighton came up with a self-acting distribution mechanism that automatically turned on or off steam and admitted water. He also added a safety valve to the steam boiler.

But circuit diagram Newcomen's machine remained unchanged for 50 years until it was improved by the University of Glasgow mechanic James Watt. In 1763-1764 he had to repair a sample of the Newcomen machine that belonged to the university. Watt made a small model of it and began to study its action. At the same time, he could use some instruments that belonged to the university, and took advice from professors. All this allowed him to look at the problem more broadly than many mechanics before him looked at it, and he was able to create a much more advanced steam engine.

Working with the model, Watt discovered that when steam was released into a cooled cylinder, it condensed in significant quantities on its walls. It immediately became clear to Watt that for more economical operation of the engine it would be more expedient to keep the cylinder constantly heated. But how to condense steam in this case? For several weeks he pondered how to solve this problem, and finally realized that the cooling of the steam should occur in separate cylinder, connected to the main short tube. Watt himself recalled that one day during an evening walk he passed by a laundry and then, seeing clouds of steam escaping from the window, he guessed that steam, being an elastic body, must rush into rarefied space. It was then that the idea occurred to him that Newcomen’s machine should be supplemented with a separate vessel for steam condensation. A simple pump, driven by the machine itself, could remove air and water from the condenser, so that with each stroke of the machine a discharged space could be created there.

Following this, Watt made several more improvements, as a result of which the car took the following form. Tubes were connected to both sides of the cylinder: through the bottom, steam came inside from the steam boiler, through the top it was discharged to the condenser. The condenser consisted of two tin tubes standing vertically and communicating with each other at the top by a short horizontal tube with a hole that was closed by a tap. The bottom of these tubes was connected to a third vertical tube, which served as an air bleed pump. The tubes that made up the refrigerator and air pump were placed in a small cylinder of cold water. The steam pipe was connected to a boiler, from which steam was released into a cylinder. When steam filled the cylinder, the steam valve was closed and the piston of the condenser air pump was raised, resulting in a highly discharged space in the condenser tubes. The steam rushed into the tubes and condensed there, and the piston rose upward, carrying the load with it (this is how the useful work of the piston was measured). Then the outlet valve was closed.

Over the next few years, Watt worked hard to improve his engine. The 1776 machine featured several fundamental improvements over the 1765 design. The piston was placed inside a cylinder, surrounded by a steam casing (jacket). Thanks to this, heat loss was reduced to a minimum. The casing on top was closed, while the cylinder was open. Steam entered the cylinder from the boiler through a side pipe. The cylinder was connected to the condenser by a pipe equipped with a steam release valve. A second balancing valve was placed slightly above this valve and closer to the cylinder. When both valves were open, the steam released from the boiler filled the entire space above and below the piston, displacing the air through the pipe into the condenser. When the valves were closed, the entire system continued to remain in equilibrium. Then the lower one was opened Exhaust valve, separating the space under the piston from the condenser. The steam from this space was directed to the condenser, cooled here and condensed. At the same time, a discharged space was created under the piston, and the pressure dropped. The steam coming from the boiler continued to exert pressure from above. Under its action, the piston went down and performed useful work, which was transmitted to the pump rod with the help of a balancer. After the piston dropped to its lowest position, the upper balancing valve opened. Steam again filled the space above and below the piston. The pressure in the cylinder was balanced. Under the influence of a counterweight located at the end of the balancer, the piston rose freely (without performing useful work). Then the whole process continued in the same sequence.

Although this Watt machine, like Newcomen’s engine, remained one-sided, it already had an important difference - if for Newcomen the work was done by atmospheric pressure, then for Watt it was done by steam. By increasing the steam pressure, it was possible to increase the engine power and thus influence its operation. However, this did not eliminate the main drawback of this type of machine - they only did one thing labor movement, worked jerkily and therefore could only be used as pumps. In 1775-1785, 66 such steam engines were built.

Polzunov began his work almost simultaneously with Watt, but with a different approach to the engine problem and in completely different economic conditions. Polzunov began with a general energy formulation of the problem of completely replacing hydraulic power plants that depended on local conditions with a universal heat engine, but was unable to realize his bold plans in serf Russia.

In 1763 I.I. Polzunov developed a detailed design for a 1.8 hp steam engine, and in 1764, together with his students, began creating a “fire-acting machine.” In the spring of 1766 it was almost ready. Due to transient consumption, the inventor himself was unable to see his brainchild in action. Testing of the steam engine began a week after Polzunov's death.

Polzunov’s machine differed from the steam engines known at that time primarily in that it was intended not only to lift water, but also to power factory machines—blowing bellows. It was a car continuous action, which was achieved through the use of two cylinders instead of one: the pistons of the cylinders moved towards each other and alternately acted on common shaft. In his project, Polzunov indicated all the materials from which the machine should be made, and also outlined the technological processes that would be required during its construction (soldering, casting, polishing). Experts say that the memorandum outlining the project was distinguished by its extreme clarity of thought and the filigree accuracy of the calculations carried out.

According to the inventor's plan, steam from the machine's boiler was supplied to one of the two cylinders and raised the piston to its highest position. After this, cooled water was injected into the cylinder from the reservoir, which led to steam condensation. Under the pressure of the external atmosphere, the piston lowered, while in the other cylinder, as a result of steam pressure, the piston rose. By using special device two operations were carried out - automatic intake of steam from the boiler into the cylinders and automatic entry of cold water. Pulley system ( special wheels) transmitted movement from the pistons to the pumps that pumped water into the reservoir, and to the blowers.

In parallel with the main machine, the inventor developed many new parts, devices and devices that greatly simplified the production process. An example is the direct-acting regulator he designed to maintain constant level water in the boiler. During the tests, serious engine defects were discovered: inaccurate processing of the surfaces of the cylinders used, loose blowers, the presence of cavities in metal parts, etc. These flaws were explained by the fact that the level of engineering production at the Barnaul plant was not yet high enough. And the scientific advances of that time did not make it possible to accurately calculate the required amount of cooling water. Nevertheless, all the shortcomings were resolved, and in June 1766 the installation with bellows was successfully tested, after which the construction of the furnaces began.

The invention of the steam engine was a turning point in the industrial and general history of mankind. At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the prerequisites appeared for the replacement of low-power and inefficient living “engines”, windmills and water wheels with mechanisms of a completely new type - steam engines. It was steam engines that made it possible to accomplish the industrial revolution and achieve modern level technology development.

It is believed that invented the first steam engine Scottish mechanic James Watt - it’s not for nothing that the international unit of power, the Watt, is named after him! However, in reality, Watt made a lot of improvements and proposed new type engine, and the history of steam engines dates back much earlier.

The use of steam to power the mechanism was first described by the ancient Greek scientist Heron of Alexandria, who worked around the 1st century AD. e. It was Heron who invented the famous Aeolipile (or “ball of Aeolus”) - a sphere fixed on an axis with nozzles coming out of it. A ball filled with water was heated over a fire, and the steam escaping from the nozzles caused the sphere to rotate.

Of course, all this is nothing more than a toy, but it was forgotten for more than a millennium and a half. For the first time after Heron, the Arab engineer and philosopher Tagi al-Dinome tried to use the power of steam - in the 16th century he created the prototype of a steam turbine that rotated a spit. Almost a century later - in 1615 - the Frenchman Solomon de Caux describes a device that can raise water using steam. And in 1629, the Italian Giovanni Branca also created a machine that resembles a turbine, - heated steam came out of the tube and hit the blades on the wheel, thereby causing the wheel to rotate.

Around the same time, the Spanish engineer Jeronimo Ayans de Beaumont created steam engine with cylinder- this mechanism had some influence on the development of events in the field of improvement of steam engines. And in 1663, the Englishman Edward Somerset described a steam engine for raising water from wells and mines, and subsequently received a patent for this invention. The machine created by Somerset worked for some time in one of the English castles, but showed far from the best results.

Two people played a huge role in the development of steam engines: the Frenchman Denis Papin and the Englishman Thomas Savery. In the mid-70s of the 17th century, Papen invented a cylinder in which a vacuum is created using the explosion of gunpowder, and then (in 1680) he adapted this cylinder to operate on steam. By the end of the century, the French scientist was close to creating an industrial model of a steam engine, but Savery was ahead of him - in 1698 the Englishman received a patent for the machine, and in 1702 the mechanism of his design began to be used for lifting and pumping water. However, these steam engines received very limited distribution - they were too imperfect.

But if Papin and Savery’s devices were little used in practice, then why did these people play important role in the history of technology? The thing is that the ideas of these engineer-inventors formed the basis of the steam engine, created in 1712 by the Englishman Thomas Newcomen. The inventor combined a machine of Savery's design with a cylinder of the Papen system, resulting in a fairly advanced engine powered by steam. Interesting detail: the machine was controlled manually - for these purposes, a special person was hired, whose tasks included opening and closing the valves at certain intervals. As legend has it, in 1713, a boy named Humphrey Potter, who was working on one of the machines, figured out how to make the valves work independently. And only in 1715 steam engines Newcomen's system appeared completely automatic system steam distribution.

There are two important points to make here. Firstly, everything described above steam engines are vacuum(or atmospheric). In this type of machine, steam was used only to heat the cylinder in which the piston moved. The principle is simple: steam enters the cylinder, heating it to a high temperature, after which cold water is poured onto the cylinder. As a result, sudden cooling occurs, and a vacuum (vacuum) is formed in the cylinder, due to which, under the influence of atmospheric pressure, the piston enters deep into the cylinder, doing work. Secondly, all these machines were used only for lifting and moving water - it never occurred to the inventors that steam could be used to propel various mechanisms. So even Newcomen's car often called a steam pump.

For more than half a century, Newcomen's steam engines remained the only mechanisms suitable for industrial use. Only in the early 1760s did progress occur in this area - Humphrey Gainsborough created improved steam engine, which, however, has not received noticeable distribution. And the Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt was destined to make a real revolution in this area.

In 1765, Watt put forward the idea that there was no need to cool the cylinder, but that it was better to use steam pressure rather than vacuum. Already in 1769, he received a patent for this invention, but the machine itself of a new design was created only in 1776 - Watt was tight with money at that time and he simply had nothing to implement his ideas.

But the most important invention of James Watt, which made him famous, appeared only in 1781: it was then that the engineer created a steam engine that can do any job. This was made possible by converting the reciprocating motion of the piston into rotation of the flywheel using the so-called planetary mechanism. And in 1784, Watt's steam engine acquired its final form - it featured a more convenient and simpler crank mechanism and many minor improvements. It was this development that became known as universal steam engine, and not in vain: the machine soon appeared in factories and factories, and at the beginning of the 19th century, Watt system engines were installed on the first steam locomotive and steamship.

It is interesting that a functioning steam engine (and not even one) was created in Russia - this is for everyone famous cars Ivan Polzunov, built between 1763 and 1766. The first Polzunov engines were shown good results, and in 1764 construction began on a large steam engine for the foundry. Construction ended in 1766, and the launch took place after the death of the inventor. Unfortunately, Polzunov's steam engine worked for only 42 days - after the breakdown it ceased to be used, and after some time it was dismantled.

As you can see, the history of steam engines does not begin with the discovery of James Watt, but it was this inventor who created a truly effective and comfortable car, which had a huge impact on the development of industry and technology. For these merits, in 1882, the unit of power known to us as the watt began to be named after Watt.

Definition

Steam engine- an external combustion engine that converts steam energy into mechanical work.

Invention...

History of the invention of steam engines begins its countdown from the first century AD. We become aware of a device described by Heron of Alexandria, powered by steam. Steam coming out of the nozzles tangentially, mounted on the ball, caused the engine to rotate. The real steam turbine was invented in medieval Egypt much later. Its inventor is the 16th century Arab philosopher, astronomer and engineer Taghi al-Dinome. The spit with blades began to rotate thanks to the steam flows directed at it. In 1629, a similar solution was proposed by the Italian engineer Giovanni Branca. The main disadvantage of these inventions was that the steam flows were dissipative, and this certainly leads to big losses energy.

Further development steam engines could not occur without appropriate conditions. Both economic well-being and the need for these inventions were necessary. Naturally, these conditions did not and could not exist until the 16th century, in view of such low level development. At the end of the 17th century, a couple of copies of these inventions were created, but were not taken seriously. The creator of the first is the Spaniard Ayans de Beaumont. Edward Somerset, a scientist from England, published a design in 1663 and installed a steam-powered device for lifting water onto the wall of the Great Tower at Raglan Castle. But since everything new is difficult for people to perceive, no one decided to finance this project. The Frenchman Denis Papin is considered the creator of the steam boiler. While conducting experiments on displacing air from a cylinder by exploding gunpowder, he discovered that a complete vacuum could only be achieved using boiling water. And for the cycle to be automatic, it is necessary that steam be produced separately in the boiler. Papin is credited with the invention of the boat, which was propelled by reactive force in a combination of the concepts of Taghi-al-Din and Severi; The safety valve is also considered his invention.

All devices described have not been used and found to be practical. Even the “fire installation”, which Thomas Savery designed in 1698, did not last long. Due to the high pressure created by steam in containers with liquids, they often exploded. Therefore, his invention was considered unsafe. In light of all these failures history of the invention of steam engines I could have stopped, but no.

Preview - click to enlarge.

The pictures show the Cugno steam tractor. As you can see, it was very bulky and inconvenient to operate.

English blacksmith, Thomas Newcomen in 1712 demonstrated his " naturally aspirated engine" It was an improved model of the Severi steam engine. It found its application as pumping water from mines. In a mine pump, the rocker arm was connected to a rod that went down into the shaft to the pump chamber. The reciprocating movements of the thrust were transmitted to the pump piston, which supplied water upward. The Newcomen engine was popular and in demand. It is with the advent of this engine that the beginning of the English industrial revolution is usually associated. First in Russia vacuum machine was designed by I.I. Polzunov in 1763, and a year later the project was brought to life. It powered the blowers at the Barnaul Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories. Oliver Evans and Richard Trevithick's idea of ​​using high pressure steam brought significant results. R. Trevithick successfully built high pressure industrial single stroke engines known as " Cornish engines" Despite the increase in efficiency, the number of cases of explosions of boilers that could not withstand the enormous pressure also increased. Therefore, it was customary to use a safety valve to release excess pressure.

French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugno demonstrated the first working self-propelled steam engine in 1769. vehicle: “fardier à vapeur” (steam cart). His invention can be considered the first car. Self-propelled steam tractor used as mobile source mechanical energy showed its effectiveness, it set in motion various agricultural machines. In 1788, a steamship was built by John Fitch, which provided regular service on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington. It had a capacity of only 30 people, and moved at speeds of up to 12 km/h. On 21 February 1804, the first self-propelled railway steam train was demonstrated at the Penydarren ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, which was built by Richard Trevithick.