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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:46 pm
Instead of turning a wheel, the piston pushed a beam up and down in a simple back-and-forth or reciprocating motion. Reciprocating steam engines were used to pump water out of flooded coal mines in the early 18th century.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:46 pm
Our diagram shows steam pushing the piston one way and the momentum of the locomotive driving it the other way. This is called a single-acting steam engine and it's quite an inefficient design because the piston is being powered only half the time. A much better (though slightly more complex) design uses extra steam pipes and valves to make steam push the piston first one way and then the other.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:46 pm
This is called a double-acting (or counterflow) steam engine. It's more powerful because steam is driving the piston all the time. If you look closely at the wheels of a typical steam engine, you'll see that everything is more complex than we've seen in the simple animation up above: there's much more machinery than just a single crank and connecting rod.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:47 pm
In fact, there's an intricate collection of shiny levers, sliding back and forth with meticulous precision. This is called the valve gear. Its job is to open and close the cylinder valves at just the right moments to let steam in from either end, both to make the engine work as efficiently and powerfully as possible and to allow it to drive in reverse.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:47 pm
There are quite a few different types of valve gear; one of the most common designs is called the Walschaerts, named for its Belgian inventor Egide Walschaerts (1820–1901). The tank engine 80104 shown in the second photo on this page has a Walschaerts-type valve gear, and so does Eddystone, the locomotive pictured below.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:47 pm
Coal was a cheap and abundant fuel during the early Industrial Revolution, but the invention of the gasoline engine (petrol engine) in the mid-19th century heralded a new era: during the 20th century, oil overtook coal as the world's favorite fuel. Steam engines are extremely inefficient, wasting around 80–90 percent of all the energy they produce from coal. That means they have to burn enormous amounts of coal to produce useful amounts of power.

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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:47 pm
A steam engine is so inefficient because the fire that burns the coal is totally separate (and often some distance from) the cylinder that turns the heat energy in the steam into mechanical energy that powers the machine.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:47 pm
1st century CE: Hero of Alexandria demonstrates a steam-powered spinning sphere called an aeolipile.
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deepika2029
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Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:48 pm
1712: Englishman Thomas Newcomen (1663–1729) develops a much better design of steam-powered, water-pumping engine than Savery and is usually credited with inventing the steam engine. A Scottish engineer named James Watt (1736–1819) figures out a much more efficient way of making power from steam after improving a model of the Newcomen engine. Watt's improvements of Newcomen's engine lead to the widespread adoption of steam.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:48 pm
1819: Steam-powered ocean ship Savannah crosses the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool in only 27 days.
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deepika2029
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:48 pm
1825: English engineer George Stephenson (1781–1848) builds the world's first steam railway between the towns of Stockton and Darlington. To begin with, steam locomotives pull only heavy coal trucks, while passengers are ferried in horse-drawn carriages.
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What is Steam Engine and how does it work ? - Page 5 Empty Re: What is Steam Engine and how does it work ?

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