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*a steam engine is a ‘heat engine’ that performs ‘mechanical work’ using ‘steam’ as its ‘working fluid’*
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(‘steam engines’ are ‘external combustion engines’, where the ‘working fluid’ is separate from the ‘combustion products’)
(‘non-combustion heat sources’ (such as ‘solar power’ / ‘nuclear power’ / ‘geothermal energy’) may be used)
(the ideal ‘thermodynamic cycle’ used to analyze this process is called the ‘rankine cycle’)
(in the cycle, ‘water’ is ‘heated’ + transforms into ‘steam’ within a ‘boiler’ operating at a ‘high pressure’)
(when ‘expanded’ through ‘pistons’ or ‘turbines’, ‘mechanical work’ is done)
(the ‘reduced-pressure steam’ is then ‘exhausted’ to the ‘atmosphere’ / or ‘condensed’ + ‘pumped’ back into the ‘boiler’)
(in general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either the ‘integrated steam plants’ (including ‘boilers’ / etc) such as ‘railway steam locomotives’ + ‘portable engines’, or may refer to the ‘piston’ or ‘turbine machinery’ alone, as in the ‘beam engine’ and ‘stationary steam engine’)
(specialized devices such as steam hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on the steam pressure supplied from a separate ‘boiler’)
(the use of ‘boiling water’ to produce ‘mechanical motion’ goes back over ‘2000 years’, but early devices were not highly practical)
(the spanish inventor ‘jerónimo de ayanz y beaumont’ obtained the first patent for a ‘steam engine’ in ‘1606’)
(in 1698, ‘thomas savery’ patented a ‘steam pump’ that used ‘steam’ in direct contact with the water being pumped)
(savery’s ‘steam pump’ used ‘condensing steam’ to create a ‘vacuum’ + draw ‘water’ into a ‘chamber’, and then applied ‘pressurized steam’ to further pump the water)
(thomas newcomen’s atmospheric engine was the first commercial true steam engine using a ‘piston’, and was used in ‘1712’ for ‘pumping’ in a ‘mine’)
(in 1781, ‘james watt’ patented a ‘steam engine’ that produced continuous ‘rotary motion’)
(watt’s ’10-horsepower engines’ enabled a wide range of ‘manufacturing machinery’ to be ‘powered’)
(the ‘engines’ could be sited anywhere that ‘water’ + ‘coal’ or ‘wood fuel’ could be obtained)
(by ‘1883’, ‘engines’ that could provide ‘10,000 hp’ had become feasible)
(the ‘stationary steam engine’ was a key component of the ‘industrial revolution’, allowing factories to locate where ‘water power’ was unavailable)
(the ‘atmospheric engines’ of ‘newcomen’ + ‘watt’ were large compared to the amount of ‘power’ they produced, but ‘high-pressure steam engines’ were light enough to be applied to vehicles such as ‘traction engines’ and the ‘railway locomotives’)
(‘reciprocating piston type steam engines’ remained the dominant source of power until the ‘early 1900s’, when advances in the design of ‘electric motors’ + ‘internal combustion engines’ gradually resulted in the replacement of reciprocating (or ‘piston’) steam engines in commercial usage, and the ascendancy of ‘steam turbines’ in ‘power generation’)
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(considering that the great majority of ‘worldwide electric generation’ is produced by ‘turbine type steam engines’, the ‘steam age’ is continuing with ‘energy levels’ far beyond those of the turn of the ‘1800s’ + ‘1900s’)
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥