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1978 BCE
Papin's Steam Engine
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100 BCE
Hero's Steam Engine
Hero's steam engine was the first mechanical device which was used as a heat source. This engine was called a "reaction Turbine", and is considered an early version of the modern steam engine. The engine consists of a metal ball connected to water through pipes. The device was filled with water which was boiled and then exited through the nozzles. Then the sphere would rotate, as this had no practical uses it was simply considered a toy -
Savery engine
Considered the first useful engine; this was a steam powered pump used to take water out of mines. However it wasn't really an improvement to using animals and could only lift water 6 meters. -
Newcomen Engine
This steam engine used a boiler to produce steam in order to force a piston up a cylinder. However the engine required massive amounts of heat to power it and it was still inefficient for cooling the cylinder. -
The Watt engine
Watt designed his engine in the hopes of improving the previous model, so he designed an engine which had a separate condenser to cool steam so the boiler would always be heat.