Who invented the steam locomotive and what inspired it?

The misleading children upstairs taught Watt to improve the steam engine in the first industrial revolution.

The first steam engine in the world was invented in the 1 century by the ancient Greek mathematician Herod of Alexandria, but it was just a toy. About 1679, the French physicist Dennis Papen made the working model of the first steam engine after observing the steam escaping from his pressure cooker. At about the same time, Samuel Moran also put forward the idea of steam engine james watt. Thomas Seville in 1698, Thomas Newcomen in 17 12 and james watt in 1769 made early industrial steam engines, all of which made their own contributions to the development of steam engines. 1807, robert fulton was the first to successfully use a steam engine to drive a ship. Watt is not the inventor of the steam engine. Before him, the steam engine, newcomen Steam Engine, appeared a long time ago, but it consumed a lot of coal and was inefficient. Using scientific theory, Watt gradually discovered the faults of this steam engine. From 1765 to 1790, he made a series of inventions, such as separate condenser, cylinder external insulation layer, piston lubricated with oil, planetary gear, parallel linkage mechanism, centrifugal governor, throttle valve, pressure gauge and so on. , make the efficiency of the steam engine to more than three times that of the original newcomen machine, and finally invented the modern steam engine. From the end of 16 to the end of 17, the British mining industry, especially coal mines, has developed to a considerable scale, and it is difficult to meet the requirements of pumping groundwater only by manpower and animal power, and there are abundant and cheap coal as fuel on site. The needs of reality have prompted many people in Britain, such as Papan, savery and newcomen, to devote themselves to the exploration and experiment of "lifting water by firepower". [2] The original vacuum steam engine was used to pump water out of the mine. Newcomen's steam engine introduced steam into the cylinder, then closed the valve and injected cold water into the cylinder, which caused a vacuum when the steam condensed. Air pressure on the other side of the piston pushes the piston. Insert a pole deep into the mine to drive the water pump. The motion of the piston of the steam engine is transmitted to the piston of the pump through this rod, and the water is pumped out of the well. The first big improvement is to separate the cylinder from the condensing cylinder through the valve. Watt invented this improvement in Birmingham. This improvement has improved the efficiency of the steam engine. The next improvement is the automatic operation of the valve. These early vacuum steam engines had limited efficiency, but were relatively safe, because their pressure was relatively low, and the machines contracted inward instead of exploding outward to prevent material damage. Their efficiency is limited by external air pressure, cylinder deformation, combustion and boiling efficiency and condensation capacity. The theoretical maximum efficiency is limited by the relatively low boiling temperature of water at ordinary atmospheric pressure. The use of high temperature and high pressure steam greatly improves the efficiency of steam engines. But this kind of steam engine is much more dangerous than vacuum steam engine. The explosion of boilers and machines caused many serious accidents. The safety valve has brought great improvement here. When the pressure is too high, the safety valve deflates and depressurizes. But the real guarantee of safety only depends on the experience and safety rules of construction, operation and maintenance. The world's first practical steam pump made in savery won the British patent named "Friends of Miners" on 1698. He first filled an egg-shaped container with steam, then closed the steam inlet valve and sprayed cold water outside the container to condense the steam in the container to form a vacuum. Open the water inlet valve, and the water at the bottom of the mine is sucked into the container through the water inlet pipe under the action of atmospheric pressure; Close the water inlet valve, reopen the steam inlet valve, and use steam pressure to press the water in the container out through the drain valve. When the water in the container is drained and filled with steam, close the steam inlet valve and drain valve, and spray water again to condense the steam. In this way, the two egg-shaped containers work alternately and can continuously drain water. The pumps in savery rely on vacuum suction to pump water, and the pumping depth cannot exceed six meters. In order to pump water from a mine tens of meters deep, it is necessary to install a water pump in the depth of the mine and use high steam pressure to pump water to the ground, which is undoubtedly difficult and dangerous at that time. Newcomen and his assistant Cali invented the atmospheric steam engine in 1705 to drive the independent water pump, which is called the newcomen atmospheric steam engine. This kind of steam engine was first popularized in Britain, then in continental Europe, and its modified products were still being manufactured until the beginning of19th century. The thermal efficiency of newcomen atmospheric steam engine is very low, which is mainly due to the fact that after steam enters the cylinder, it condenses on the cylinder wall that has just been cooled by water and loses a lot of heat. It is only promoted in coal-producing areas with low coal prices. 1764, British instrument repairman james watt noticed this shortcoming when repairing newcomen steam engine model for Glasgow University, and invented a steam engine with condenser separated from cylinder wall in 1765, and obtained a British patent in 1769. In the early days, Watt's steam engine still used the balance bar and pull rod mechanism to drive the water pump. In order to remove the condensate and air from the condenser, Watt installed an air pump. He also installed an interlayer on the outer wall of the cylinder and heated the cylinder wall with steam to reduce condensation loss. Watt's creative work made the steam engine develop rapidly. He turned the machine that can only carry water into a widely used steam engine, which doubled the thermal efficiency and greatly reduced the coal consumption. Therefore, Watt is a reformer of steam engine. /kloc-Since the late 8th century, steam engines have been widely used not only in mining, but also in smelting, textile, machinery manufacturing and other industries. It has increased the textile output in Britain by five times (from 1766 to 1789) in more than 20 years, provided a large number of consumer goods for the market, accelerated the accumulation of funds and put forward urgent requirements for the transportation industry. The experiment of using steam engine as propulsion power on ships began in 1776. After continuous improvement, Fulton, USA made the first practical open-wheel propulsion steam engine ship "clermont". Since then, steam engines have been used as propulsion power on ships for more than one hundred years. /kloc-in 0/800, Trevithick of England designed a high-pressure steam engine, which can be installed on a larger car body. 1803, he used it to propel motorcycles running on circular tracks, find people who like novelty and charge them. This is the prototype of the locomotive. Stephen Sun of Britain constantly improved the locomotive and created the "Rocket" steam locomotive in 1829. The locomotive is towing a carriage with 30 passengers at a speed of 46 km/h, which has attracted the attention of all countries and created the railway era. At the end of 19, with the rise of electric power application, steam engines were once used as the main power machinery of power stations. /kloc-in 0/900, there was a steam engine power station with a single unit power of 5 MW in new york, USA. The development of steam engines reached its peak in the early 20th century. It has the advantages of constant torque, variable speed, reversibility, reliable operation and convenient manufacture and maintenance, so it was widely used in power stations, factories, locomotives, ships and other fields, especially in warships, and became the only prime Mover at that time. It should be noted that many textbooks (history books and physics books) say that Watt was the inventor of the steam engine. This is misinformation. The steam engine was independently invented by the Englishman Zavelli in 1698 and newcomen in 1705 for pumping water in mines. It was inefficient at that time. 1765, Watt made a great improvement on the steam engine on the basis of repairing Newgate machine, separated the condenser from the cylinder, and invented crankshaft gear transmission and centrifugal governor, which modernized the steam engine and greatly improved its efficiency. Watt's invention is still used in modern steam engines. To commemorate Watt's contribution, the unit name of electric power was named after his surname.