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Newcomen, Thomas
| (1663-1729), British mechanical engineer, invented the atmospheric steam engine (1712), superior to Thomas Savery's pump (1698) and the precursor of James Watt's revolutionary steam engine (1769). As an ironmaster in Dartmouth, he devised (with John Calley) a steam pumping engine in which atmospheric air pushed the piston down after the condensation of steam had created a vacuum in the cylinder. His first engine was erected near Dudley Castle in Staffordshire in 1712. Later engines were used to drain mines and raise water (to support waterwheels). He was born in 1663 in Dartmouth, Devon, England, and died Aug. 5, 1729, London. |
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