Steam ships

Already at the beginning there was the idea of propelling ships by steam. Denis Papin was the first who occupied himself with this topic. He succeeded in designing impellers, which he wanted to use on a steam boat. However, it was too early for that and he had to refuse the construction.
The first patent on a ship machine was given to Jonathan Hull. He designed in 1736 a steamboat which should be used in towing. But the very complicated construction with ropes and roles has never been build.

John Fitch

He was interested in steam engines only after 40 years of living.
Fitch's first model was a boat that was propelled by a machine out of brass, which worked on a series of paddles. Fitch showed this model to the american philosophical society in Philadelphia on september the 2nd in 1785. He received in the following years some patents on the right of using steamships on some rivers in america. In 1787 Fitch build his first real steamboat.

The bigest problem for him was the engine. He didn't have any non-leaking cylinder, the condensor wansn't good enough and the valves leaked too. But he could anyway do some travels with it. Henry Voight, a collegue of him invented the surface-condensor, which Fitch used in future on all his boats. The boiler of the boat was also very interesting: Fitch already used a water-tube boiler in 1787. The water was leaded through spiralformed tubes over the fire.

Another boat of Fitch was already very stable and he could make travels with people. This boat did about 2000 to 3000 miles during the regular oparating without having any concrete damages. In 1796, John F. constructed another steamboat that was propelled by some sort of a screw. Two years later, he died.

Patrick Miller and William Symington
These two men have been the pioneers in England concerning steam navigation. In 1788, they build a steamboat which was stimulated by two cylinders. The problem was that the engines were atmospheric machines that used a separate condenser and therefore were inside the patent of James Watt. This was probably one of the reasons why Symington continued his attempts only around 1801. Symington build the "first practical steamboat" the "Charlotte Dundas". He was working with a double-acting steam engine by James Watt. This engine worked directly on the impeller through a connecting rod.

Henry Bell

He was the first one who made regular travels with a steamboat in Europa. Bell built his "Comet" at the beginning of 1812. After doing some improvements were made. He started the regular steam navigation between Greenock in the first weeks of August in 1812 and his public swimming pool in Helensburg. With the the death of Henry Bell in 1830 his steam navigation ended also.

Robert L. Stevens

He was the one who built the first American steamboat travelling on rivers. After him, no significant changes have been made to his technical solutions for this problem. Stevens used an engine from Watt working on a double acting lever. In a few years, he was able to find the technical best solutions. In 1827, he build the North America. This was one of his most successfull ships. Robert S. used two engines inside of it. Each of them had a piston travel of 8 feet. He is said to have reached a velocity of 15 to 16 miles per hour with it. Other of his inventions followed.

Robert Fulton


He is considered as the pioneer of the today's steam navigation. However, his "genius" was limited to assembling competents, which were designed before him by others. Fulton used one of Watt's engines for his "Clermont" and some technical features which were invented by John Fitch and other men. He combined those things and constructed a steamboat that was able to travel the distance New York - Albany three times as fast as everything before him. He was able to found a growing plant, which built the first profitable steam ships.


Development of steam ships
Probably all of us know them, the big Mississippi steamers. The construction of steamships became a big challenge among the ship designers, who wanted to allure the travelers with as much splendor and elegance as possible. But soon, travelling was not the goal any more. The steamers were used by people because of the atmosphere and not to overcome distances.

The last swimming palace that was built costed about 2 million dollars. The expensive item was not the ship but the furniture and other equipment that was often imported from other countries.
Another possibility to gain the travellers favour was to win challenges. The ships had to swim from one point to another as fast as possible. The picture you see beside was taken on such a contest. Mississippi Queen is leading in front of Delta Queen.


Titanic

The Titanic was (and is still) the biggest ocean steamer that was ever built. It had a length of 269 meters. The whole ship was powered by steam power. Inside, there were 29 boilers, each of them with a height of about 5 meters and a weight of 100 tons. The steam was used in a low pressure steam engine.

Steam Cars

The development of steamcars

Nicolas Josef Cugnot

When the locomotive was being developed, some engineers also tried to build cars using steam power, which could be used on normal streets. In France, the first attempts were done. The artillery officer, Josef Cugnot, was allowed to build a steamcar, which was paid by the government.

Although the first version of his car was very unpractical - after a quater of an hour of ride, the boiler had to be heated up for the same time -, Cugnot was commissioned to build a bigger style of his car that was able to transport artillery guns. After the first car accident in history Cugnot stopped his work, also because of missing financial support of the government.

Steamcars in England
The leading engineer in the development of steam cars in England was Richard Trevithick. But he had no luck, either, and he had to stop his project because of money problems.

Walter Hancock
After Trevithick, the boom engineers hoped to arrived. Light boilers, which were not less powerful than others, were used. A boiler, built by Hancock, had big success. He used many flat chambers, connected through pipes.

Newer Steam Cars

Stanley


The twins Francis and Freelan Stanley built up a steamcar enterprise in the first two decades of the XX century. In those years, they participated in some challenges. In 1906, they succeeded in building the fastest and never beaten steam car so far. They reached a speed of 205 km/h with it. At the moment, some English steam scientists try to break this old record.

Steam force in agriculture


Many steam cars were built to be utilized in agriculture. Even today some of them are still working. Steam fans often meet in England at steam car meetings, where they present their devices to interested people.

Steam Trains

History of the steam engine after James Watt
In 1800, the patent of James Watt was over. The consequence was an enormous mass of inventions with steam as their basis. All those inventors wanted to improve the steam engine. However, there were not many people that could achieve more than just a printed paper of their product.

The evolution of the noncondensing high-pressure steam-engine
James Watt already mentioned the idea of a high-pressure steam engine in his patent of 1769. He did not intend to build such an engine, but he wanted to be sure nobody else would either. Watt thought that it was impossible to create cylinders and pistons that did not leak under high pressure. He probably also thought about the boiler-detonations of some Savery-engines.

Richard Trevithick
He already thought early about building high-pressure steam engines.
However, many critics did not believe a high-pressure steam engine would really do any work. Trevithick found in South Whales an owner of a mine who refused to believe that a locomotive, operating at high pressure, could pull 10 tons on his 10 miles long good course. Trevithick made a bet with him. Then he built the first locomotive in the world and won the bet.

Nonetheless, he did not receive much success with his locomotives. In 1808, he tried again to take the interest of the public. He rented the largest building sites of London and a circular rail system. By paying entrance, everyone was able to shut a glimpse at his new locomotive "Catch me who can." A travel with it was part of the entrance. The conception did however not bring the success Trevithick expected. He, therefore, did other technical inventions.

George Stephenson and the competition at Rainhill in 1829
George Stephensons' inventions have been really substantial for the history of steam locomotives. However, his first attemps did not bring the success he had hoped for. The owners of the mines could not see the advantage of using steam power instead of horses.
Stephenson then invented some locomotives, which have been used on short coal courses. He was not the only man who contributed to the evolution of steam locomotives. In 1829, there was a decision to build a railway line between the two main cities of trade in England. The line had been finished before having concrete thoughts about the way of transport. Many ideas have been sent to the management. Many of them couldn't get realized. The best chances to be carried out had a set of stationary steam-engine which pulled the wagons by means of rope. But George Stephenson wanted them to do a competition of useful locomotives, so they did.

There were four locomotives that had been announced to participate on the competition. One got a damaged during the transportation and did not fit to the rules. Two locomotives had been suspended from the competition, because they had mechanical difficulties. So there was only Stephensons Rocket left. The great advantage of this engine was its tube boiler. It was the secretary of the railway company who designed it. The cylinder operated through some precautions directly on the front axle. After doing some improvements during the tests, the machine was able to pull a passenger wagon with more than thirty persons inside and reached a velocity of 45 km/h (=28 miles/h). A great advantage of this machine was also that it did not get damaged during the tests. The price of the competition was paid fifty-fifty to Stephenson and Booth, the secretary of the railway company and inventor of the tube boiler.
Stephenson build more locomotives.


Steam locomotives


A modern steam engine consists of a double acting steam engine, which works directly on the driving wheels. Water is heated in a boiler to produce steam. The water is leaded in spiral formed tubes over the fire to enlarge the surface. The conveying of steam is regulated by a slide-gate valve, which can be adjusted to choose whenever the engine runs forward or backwards.