The Most Powerful Idea in the World

The Most Powerful Idea in the World

Author: William Rosen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-03-15

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0226726347

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"The Most Powerful Idea in the World argues that the very notion of intellectual property drove not only the invention of the steam engine but also the entire Industrial Revolution." -- Back cover.


Power from Steam

Power from Steam

Author: Richard L. Hills

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1993-08-19

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 9780521458344

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This is the first comprehensive history of the steam engine in fifty years. It follows the development of reciprocating steam engines, from their earliest forms to the beginning of the twentieth century when they were replaced by steam turbines.


Building Simple Model Steam Engines

Building Simple Model Steam Engines

Author: Tubal Cain

Publisher: Nexus Special Interests

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 9781854861474

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A guide to building simple oscillating steam engine models. It describes the making of four such models: Kitty, a small overtype engine; Otto, a simple steam turbine plant; Wencelas, a superior Christmas present; and Henry a 19th-century vertical engine and boiler.


The Governor

The Governor

Author: John Hannavy

Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport

Published: 2022-03-10

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1399090917

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A history of the creation and evolution of the mechanism that brought precision to the steam power and changed the world. Power without control is unusable power, and long after the invention of the steam engine, finding ways of applying that power to tasks where consistency was of paramount importance was the ‘Holy Grail’ which many steam engineers sought to find. It was the centrifugal governor which brought precision to the application of steam power, and its story can be traced back to seventeenth-century Holland and Christiaan Huygens’ development of both the pendulum clock and system controls for windmills, and governors are still at the heart of sophisticated machinery today—albeit electronic rather than mechanical. Without the centrifugal governor, precise control over the increasingly-complex machinery which has been developed over the past two centuries would not have been possible. It was the first device to give the engineman the control they needed. As machine speed increased, the governor had to evolve to keep pace with the demands for greater precision. Over a hundred British patents were applied for in the nineteenth century alone for ‘improvements’ in governor design, many of which could be fitted, or retro-fitted, to engines from every large manufacturer. Some enginemen, on taking up new appointments—their jobs depending on the precision and consistency of their engine’s operation—would even request that the governor be replaced with their preferred model. This book, the first to deal with the subject, tells the story of the evolution of the original ‘spinning-ball’ governor from its first appearance to the point where it became a small device entirely enclosed in a housing to keep it clean, and thus hidden from view. Praise for The Governor “A beautiful, well-produced book that any engineering-minded person with a passion for steam engines will be proud to own. It traces the story of attempts to get the speed of steam engines and other machinery under control. . . . The book is lavishly illustrated with many beautiful photographs of some of the author's favourite machines. . . . I found this a gloriously well-produced book which I devoured enthusiastically! I commend it to anyone with a serious interest in mechanical engineering.” —Richard Gibbon O.B.E. C.Eng F.I.Mech.E former Head of Engineering, National Railway Museum


Steam on the Farm

Steam on the Farm

Author: Jonathan Brown

Publisher: Crowood Press (UK)

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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The 19th century was the great age of steam. This book traces the history and development of the agricultural use of steam power from the 19th century to the end of the Second World War and considers how it was actually used.


The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen

The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen

Author: L. T. C. Rolt

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9781901522440

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Originally published in 1977 as a memorial to Rolt, this is an authoritative biography on the life and work of Thomas Newcomen, the first to produce a machine capable of providing power, other than that derived from man, animals or the elements. Additional notes have been added to put the book within the context of more recent research.