A Short History of the Steam Engine [Paperback]

A highly readable history of the stationary steam engine, intelligible to the non-specialist reader and engineer alike.A Short History of the Steam Engine, first published in 1939, remains one of the most readable on the topic for the non-specialist. Dickinson limits himself to stationary engines and boilers. The many illustrations and lucid text make this book a pleasure for both engineer and historian.A Short History of the Steam Engine, first published in 1939, remains one of the most readable on the topic for the non-specialist. Dickinson limits himself to stationary engines and boilers. The many illustrations and lucid text make this book a pleasure for both engineer and historian.A Short History of the Steam Engine, first published in 1939, remains one of the most readable and clear explanations of the topic for the non-specialist. H. W. Dickinson limits himself to stationary engines and boilers, and only touches on the beginnings of locomotive and marine engines. He puts the stages of development in their context, showing how economic and social factors were involved in the evolution of the steam engine. The illustrations are plentiful and the text, while technical, never becomes impenetrable. The successive improvements to the simple engines of the seventeenth century, as new materials or purposes arose, are developed chapter by chapter to the twentieth century. Each engineer was building on the work of his predecessors, rather than there being any single inventor of genius. Dickinson also wrote biographies of key figures of the Industrial Revolution, which are being reissued in this series.Preface; Part I. The Reciprocating Engine: 1. Introductory; 2. Savery and his fire engine; 3. Newcomen and his vacuum engine; 4. The atmospheric engine in the period between Newcomen and Watt; 5. Watt and his separate condenser engine; 6. Low-pressure and high-pressure engines, 18011850; 7. Land boilers up to 1850; 8. From heyday to recession, 1851 to the present day; 9.l~