Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Steam Engine |
Steam EngineNoun1. External-combustion engine in which heat is used to raise steam which either turns a turbine or forces a piston to move up and down in a cylinder. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Food & Agriculture | A prime-mover driven by steam produced from a boiler. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mechanical Engineering | An external combustion engine which heats water to form steam under pressure which in turns drives a crankshaft via pistons. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, converting it to mechanical work. Steam engines were used in pumps, locomotive trains and steam ships, and were essential to the Industrial Revolution. They are still used for electrical power generation.
A steam engine needs a boiler to boil water to produce steam under pressure. Any heat source can be used, but the most common is a wood or coal fire. The steam is allowed to expand by pushing against a piston or turbine, whose motion is used to do work.
The first steam device, the aeolipile, was invented by Heron of Alexandria, a Greek, in the 1st century AD, but used only as a toy. Denis Papin, a French physicist, built a working model of a steam engine after observing steam escaping from his pressure cooker in about 1679. Early industrial steam engines were designed by Thomas Savery (1698), Thomas Newcomen (1712), and James Watt (1769), each of whom added new refinements.
Early engines worked by the vacuum of condensing steam, whereas later types (such as steam locomotives, used the power of expanding steam.
Steam engines are of various types but most are reciprocal piston or turbine devices.
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated the first functional self-propelled steam vehicle, his "steam wagon", in 1769. Arguably, this was the first automobile. Steam engine powered automobiles continued to compete with other motive systems into the early decades of the 20th century. However steam engines are less favored for automobiles, which are generally powered by internal combustion engines, because steam requires at least thirty seconds (in a flash boiler) or so to develop pressure.
On February 21, 1804 at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales, the first self-propelling railway steam engine or steam locomotive built by Richard Trevithick was first demonstrated.
The strength of the steam engine for modern purposes is in its ability to convert raw heat into mechanical work. Unlike the internal combustion engine, the steam engine is not particular about the source of heat.
A steam engine exhausting to atmosphere will have an efficiency (including the boiler) of 5% but with the addition of a condenser the efficiency is greatly improved to 25% or better. A power station with exhaust reheat, etc. will achieve 30% efficiency.
One source of inefficiency is that the condenser causes losses by being somewhat hotter than the outside world. Thus any closed-cycle engine will always be somewhat less efficient than any open-cycle engine, because of condenser losses.
Most notably, without the use of a steam engine nuclear energy could not be harnessed for useful work, as a nuclear reactor does not directly generate either mechanical work or electrical energy - the reactor itself simply heats water. It is the steam engine which converts the heat energy into useful work.
Also see
- Newcomen steam engine
- Watt steam engine
- Steam Locomotive for details of steam powered railway 'engines'
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Steam engine."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Misuse | Cut blocks with a razor, employ a steam engine to crack a nut; catch at a straw. |
Redundancy | Send coals to Newcastle, carry coals to Newcastle, carry owls to Athens; teach one's grandmother to suck eggs; pisces natare docere;kill the slain, " gild refined gold", "gild the lily", butter one's bread on both sides, put butter upon bacon; employ a steam engine to crack a nut; (waste). |
Waste | Waste its sweetness on the desert air ; cast one's bread upon the waters, cast pearls before swine; employ a steam engine to crack a nut, waste powder and shot, break a butterfly on a wheel; labor in vain; (useless); cut blocks with a razor, pour water into a sieve. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Black and White photo of a crew posing on an old train steam engine. Credit: Unknown. |  | Halftone reproduction of a photograph of the ship's triple expansion steam engine, circa 1918. This machinery was constructed by the W. & A. Fletcher Company for installation in the ship, which was launched at Brown's shipyard, Staten Island, New York, on 8 February 1919. Copied from "The Rudder" magazine, June 1919, page 285. Credit: NAVY. |
 | Steam engine of four horsepower by Messrs. Fenton, Murray & Wood, 1802. Applied to a mill for grinding bark. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Shenandoah Valley. Almost forty years ago, J.C. Myers, now sixty-three, made a model of a steam engine and took it into the Frick Shops where it landed him a job. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Smithsonian Institution interiors. John Bull steam engine in the Smithsonian. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Railroads. Train with steam engine coming down tracks. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The first steam engine designed and built in the United States, by Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, Pa., 1801 / Drawing by Thos. Arnold McKibbin. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
Expressions using "steam engine": employ a steam engine to crack a nut ♦ portable steam engine ♦ Semiportable steam engine ♦ vertical steam engine. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
steam engine | 2,271 |
model steam engine | 86 |
steam engine train | 33 |
steam engine picture | 30 |
toy steam engine | 26 |
steam engine kit | 24 |
miniature steam engine | 10 |
stationary steam engine | 9 |
marine steam engine | 9 |
live steam engine | 8 |
steam engine design | 7 |
model steam engine plan | 6 |
wilesco steam engine | 5 |
thomas the steam engine | 4 |
big boy steam engine | 3 |
steam engine generator | 3 |
steam engine uk | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "steam engine"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | motor me avull, lokomotivë me avull. (various references) | |
Arabic | محرك بخاري, قاطرة بخارية. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | парна машина, парен двигател. (various references) | |
Czech | parostroj, parní stroj. (various references) | |
Danish | dampmotor, dampmaskine, damplokomotiv. (various references) | |
Dutch | stoommotor, stoommachine, stoomkrachtvoertuig. (various references) | |
Finnish | höyrymoottori, höyrykone (steam-engine), höyry kone. (various references) | |
French | moteur vapeur. (various references) | |
German | Dampfmaschine. (various references) | |
Greek | ατμομηχανή. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מכו ת קיטור, קטר (engine, loco, locomotive). (various references) | |
Hungarian | gõzmozdony, gõzgép, gőzmozdony (steam locomotive). (various references) | |
Italian | motore a vapore, macchina a vapore, locomotiva a vapore. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | '気機関 , スタンプ販売 (robot, stamp trading, steal, steam, steam bath, steam hammer, steam heater, steam iron, steam turbine, steel, steel collar worker, steel file, steel guitar, steel nail file, steel radial, steel sash, still). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | スチー エンジン , じょうききか". (various references) | |
Manx | gaal-ghreie. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eamstay engineay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | motor a vapor, máquina a vapor. (various references) | |
Romanian | maşinã cu aburi, locomotivã (engine, locomotive, stream-liner). (various references) | |
Russian | паровой двигатель (steam-engine). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | parna mašina. (various references) | |
Spanish | máquina de vapor. (various references) | |
Swedish | ångmaskin (steam-engine). (various references) | |
Turkish | lokomotif (engine, iron horse, loco, locomotive, locomotive engine, puffer), buhar makinesi. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-e-e-g-i-m-n-n-s-t" | |
-2 letters: antigenes, esteeming, geminates, magnesite, magnetise. | |
-3 letters: antigene, antigens, easement, emetines, enamines, etamines, geminate, gentians, mangiest, mannites, matinees, meanings, meetings, meninges, mintages, misagent, miseaten, steaming. | |
-4 letters: anteing, antigen, antings, easting, eatings, emetine, emetins, eminent, enamine, enemies, engines, enigmas, etamine, etamins, etesian, gametes, gamiest, gamines, gannets, gatemen, gentian, inanest, ingates, ingesta, inmates, intense, magnets, maneges. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-e-e-g-i-m-n-n-s-t" | |
+2 letters: disengagement. | |
+3 letters: disengagements, gemeinschaften, intersegmental. | |
+4 letters: disentanglement, gentlemanliness. | |
+5 letters: disentanglements, governmentalizes, semigovernmental. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
