Thomas Newcomen

Thomas Newcomen was an English inventor who lived from 1664 to 1729. He created something called the atmospheric engine in 1712, which helped solve a big problem in coal and tin mines. At that time, water would often flood these mines, making it hard to keep them running. Newcomen worked to find better ways to pump the water out.

He was born in Dartmouth, in Devon, England, and came from a merchant family. Even though he was a Baptist preacher, he also worked as an ironmonger. His business focused on making and selling tools for the mining industry, which was very useful for his inventions. His work had a lasting impact on how mines operated back then.

Religious life

Thomas Newcomen was a preacher and a leader in the local Baptist church. After 1710, he led a group of Baptists. His father helped bring a well-known Puritan minister named John Flavel to Dartmouth. One of Newcomen's business contacts in London, Edward Wallin, was also a Baptist minister and knew Doctor John Gill from Horsleydown, Southwark. Newcomen's ties with the Baptist church in Bromsgrove helped spread his steam engine because engineers Jonathan Hornblower Sr. and his son were also part of the same church.

Developing the atmospheric engine

Main article: Newcomen atmospheric engine

Thomas Newcomen created an early kind of steam engine around 1712. He used ideas from two other inventors, Thomas Savery and Denis Papin, to make a machine that could lift water out of mines. Savery had made a simple device using steam, but it didn’t work very well for deep mines.

Newcomen improved this by using a cylinder with a moving part called a piston. When steam was let into the cylinder and then cooled, it created an empty space that pulled the piston down. This movement was used to lift a heavy beam, which in turn pulled a chain connected to a pump. The pump could then push water out of the mine and up to the surface. Newcomen and his partner John Calley built the first of these engines at a coal mine in Tipton, in the West Midlands. You can still see a copy of this old engine at the Black Country Living Museum nearby.

Later life and death

Not much is known about Thomas Newcomen’s later years. After 1715, the work on his engines was managed by a group called the 'Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire'. Newcomen passed away in 1729 at the home of a friend and was buried in a graveyard near the City of London, but the exact spot of his grave is not known.

By 1733, around 125 of Newcomen’s engines had been set up in many important mining areas across Britain and Europe. These engines were used in coal mines in places like the Black Country and near Newcastle upon Tyne, as well as in tin and copper mines in Cornwall, and lead mines in Flintshire and Derbyshire.

After Newcomen

The Newcomen engine stayed the same for about 75 years, spreading to more places in the UK and Europe. At first, expensive brass cylinders were used, but new iron casting methods allowed for bigger cylinders. By the 1760s, cylinders up to about 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter were used.

John Smeaton improved the engine's design in the early 1770s, and his changes were quickly adopted. By 1775, around 600 Newcomen engines had been built, though many were worn out or replaced by then.

The Newcomen engine was not very efficient because it lost a lot of heat when cooling the steam. This was okay in places where small coal was available, but it raised costs where coal was scarce, like in Cornwall. After 1775, the engine was replaced in such areas by an improved design invented by James Watt. Watt's engine, which used a separate condenser to cool the steam, was much more fuel-efficient. Watt and his partner Matthew Boulton earned a lot of money from the fuel savings.

Watt also invented the double-acting engine, which used both the up and down strokes for power. This was great for textile mills. Although early attempts to use Newcomen engines for machinery had mixed results due to jerky motion, improvements like flywheels helped solve these issues. By 1800, hundreds of non-Watt rotary engines were built, especially in collieries and ironworks.

Even with Watt's improvements, Newcomen engines remained in use for a long time because they were cheaper and simpler. More Newcomen engines than Watt engines were built even during Watt's patent period up to 1800. Many of Watt's ideas, like the Separate Condenser, were used in unofficial engines. After 1800, Newcomen engines continued to be built with condensers added, and existing Newcomen engines were often updated with these condensers.

Surviving Newcomen engines

You can see examples of Newcomen engines at the Science Museum, London in England and the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, US, as well as other places.

In 1964, the Newcomen Society of London moved a Newcomen engine from Hawkesbury Junction, Warwickshire, to Dartmouth, where it now runs using water power instead of steam. This engine, known as the Newcomen Memorial Engine, dates back to around 1725, with some newer parts added later.

One of the last Newcomen engines still in its original location is at the Elsecar Heritage Centre near Barnsley in South Yorkshire. It was restored between 2012 and 2015 and shown to the public in May 2016 by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. Another working Newcomen engine is a modern copy at the Black Country Museum in Dudley, West Midlands. The Newcomen Memorial Engine in Dartmouth, Devon also moves, but it uses water power to operate.

Recognition

On 23 February 2012, the Royal Mail issued a stamp showing Newcomen's atmospheric steam engine. It was part of their "Britons of Distinction" series.