More about us - Thomas Newcomen

Thomas Newcomen was the inventor of the first practicable atmospheric steam pumping engine, the Newcomen engine. This was to have a profound effect on the ability to mine from greater depths, thus assisting the dawning industrial revolution.

Newcomen was born in Dartmouth, Devon in 1664, a devout Baptist. He worked as an ironmonger - and so described himself throughout his life. He not only sold items but fabricated parts himself from metal. Through this he became familiar with the mines of Devon and Cornwall where he noted the difficulty and expense of removing water from the mines.

Another Devonian, Captain Thomas Savery, had invented a pump in about 1698, and took out a broadly-worded patent for "raising water and imparting motion to all sorts of mill-work by the impellant force of fire". The device relied upon vacuum and atmospheric pressure to raise water from below, and upon high-pressure steam to force this water to the surface of the mine. It was not a success when used in mines, there were difficulties in construction due to the limits of current technology, but the patent created problems later for Newcomen.

There is no known image of Thomas Newcomen, but the location of his house and workshop are known and are commemorated by plaques in Dartmouth. He worked for many years on his invention, and achieved success in about 1710 with the construction of the world's first reciprocating steam engine. This also relied on a vacuum but was a great advance over Savery's pump, and made no undue demands on the technology then available.

The Newcomen engine

Newcomen's engine comprised a vertical cylinder, at first made of brass and later iron, which was placed above a copper boiler with a lead top. The cylinder had a piston connected by a chain to one end of a great rocking beam; on the other end of the beam were chains which descended to the pumps deep in the mine.

Savery's device relied upon the external application of water to the outside of a vessel containing steam slowly to create a vacuum which drew up water from below, and then upon high-pressure steam to force the water up and out of the mine.

Newcomen discovered that injecting water directly into the engine cylinder resulted in the immediate condensation of the steam within, and that the piston above would move rapidly down under atmospheric pressure. By the repeated application of low-pressure steam to the cylinder, followed by the injection of water, the engine would operate the beam and hence the pumps. A system of levers was designed; these were actuated by pegs upon a plug rod, and thus the engine became self operating.

With its boiler, vertical cylinder and piston, and its overhead beam or 'great lever', the engine presented for the first time that classic combination of major components which, with refinements, would persist for some 200 years.

The first examples

The first successful Newcomen engine is recognised as that erected at the coal works at Conygree near Dudley Castle in 1712, though there may have been earlier less successful attempts at one or two locations in Cornwall.

The engine had a brass cylinder, 21 inches internal diameter and 7ft 10in high, which was fixed above the lead-topped copper boiler. The overhead beam rocked 12 times in a minute; each stroke lifted 10 gallons of water from a depth of 51 yards.

The uptake of Newcomen's engine was rapid, and Newcomen himself was involved with engines at Griff near Coventry in 1714; at Bilston in 1714; Leeds and Harwarden in Flintshire in 1714/15; Whitehaven in 1715.

When Savery died in 1715 a Joint Stock Company was set up, known as 'Proprietors of the invention for raising water by fire' and this issued licences to others for the building and operation of Newcomen engines.

The spread of the engine was remarkable and over 110 are known to have been built in Britain and Europe by 1733, when the patent expired. By 1800 over 2000 are claimed to have been built.

The significance of the Newcomen engine

Newcomen's engine met a need, and it was a success because it used low-pressure steam - just above atmospheric pressure - purely to create a vacuum. It could be built using the technology of the time, and its power could readily be increased by using larger cylinders and boilers.

In his 1963 book on Newcomen, LTC Rolt sums up Newcomen's achievement: "In the whole history of technology it would be difficult to find a greater single advance than this, nor one with a greater significance for all humanity".

Engines in existence today

There are no true Newcomen engines in existence today, but at the Black Country Living Museum at Dudley there is a unique full-sized working replica of the 1712 Dudley Castle engine, based on a drawing of 1719. The engine is operated under steam from time to time, and can be observed by the public. (See external links).

At Dartmouth there is a small atmospheric engine donated by the British Transport Commission, and erected by Mr Arthur Pyne, member of the Newcomen Society, in 1963. Its early history is not certain, but it was used by the Coventry Canal Company from 1821-1913 for pumping water into the canal at Hawkesbury Junction. It is fitted with a later form of condenser, but has the traditional timber rocking beam. The refurbished engine house now has a hydraulic mechanism and some descriptive material on display. (See external links).

There is another, much modified, atmospheric engine at Elsecar, but this has cast-iron beams of a later period, parallel motion and a separate condenser patented by James Watt in 1769.