Great Inventions part 4

Great Inventions part 4

Steam engine:

It's a heat engine that uses steam as working fluid to perform mechanical work. The first steam engine was aeolipile (also known as Heron's Engine) created in the 1st century AD  by Heron from Alexandria. His invention was a cupola rotated by vapor stream from bent metal tubes. It didn't have any practical use back then but in fact it was a complete model of steam turbine. In 1690 Denis Papin created a cylinder with piston and little amount of water on the bottom, which was heated to pull up the piston and after removing the source of heat steam was condensing and the piston was moving. Due to too low thermal efficiency his machine couldn't work properly but the year of his invention is considered as the birth of steam engine. The first useful steam- powered machine was a pump for dewatering mines created by Thomas Savery in 1690. His invention had the power of 1 horsepower (750W). In 1712 Thomas Newcomen improved Savery's machine to piston atmospheric steam engine. In 1883 Carl Lavar created action turbine and year later Charles Parsons  created reaction engine.