Steampunk Engine HDR
by John Straton
Title
Steampunk Engine HDR
Artist
John Straton
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Steam Powered Factories
Factories during the second half of the 19th century are characterized by the introduction of steam power. Separate buildings housed the steam engine, chimney stacks and water tanks were constructed, and belts and shafts were moved to the exterior of the building. The development of steam power also prompted the evolution of the factory model. By 1850, the importance of railroad transportation prompted factories to be constructed near rail lines rather than rivers. Advances in iron and steel allowed the factory to expand significantly. The iron and steel frames also allowed for larger windows. After the Civil War, in the late 1860s, factories moved into designated factory zones. Many older factories located along the water were updated to steam power.
The development of machine tools, such as the lathe, planing and shaping machines powered by these engines, enabled all the metal parts of the engines to be easily and accurately cut and in turn made it possible to build larger and more powerful engines.
In the early 19th century after the expiration of Watt's patent, the steam engine underwent great increases in power due to the use of higher pressure steam which Watt had always avoided because of the danger of exploding boilers, which were in a very primitive state of development.
Until about 1800, the most common pattern of steam engine was the beam engine, built as an integral part of a stone or brick engine-house, but soon various patterns of self-contained portative engines (readily removable, but not on wheels) were developed, such as the table engine. Further decrease in size due to use of higher pressure came towards the end of the 18th Century when the Cornish engineer, Richard Trevithick and the American engineer, Oliver Evans, independently began to construct higher pressure (about 40 pounds per square inch (2.7 atm)) engines which exhausted into the atmosphere. This allowed an engine and boiler to be combined into a single unit compact and light enough to be used on mobile road and rail locomotives and steam boats.
Trevithick was a man of versatile talents, and his activities were not confined to small applications. Trevithick developed his large Cornish boiler with an internal flue from about 1812. These were also employed when upgrading a number of Watt pumping engines, greatly increasing power and productivity; this led to the highly efficient large Cornish engines that continued to be built right up to the end of the 19th Century.
Uploaded
April 1st, 2014
Embed
Share
