Princess Juzen G. Almazan
2020-01048
BSA 1-7
1. Research on the development of the following: a.) Watt’s Steam Engine, b.) Steam
turbine, c.) Internal Combustion Engine
The Industrial Revolution began in the late 18th century and early 19th century in
England, Europe and North America where the lives of people changed because of several
industrial achievements and engineering inventions that resulted to rely on manufacturing
processes and machine rather than human labor. The start of the said Industrial
Revolution was greatly contributed by the discovery of steam power and invention of
steam engine. Steam engine is a heat engine that harbors mechanical power by the
use of the energy of steam. The basic principle of steam-based power is that the
condensation of water vapor can create a vacuum. Steam engine developed from
Savery, Newcomen, and Watt.
The removal of water from mines was one of the most significant industrial challenges
in 1700s. In the early days, the common way of water removal is through a bucketspulley system operated by horses which is ineffective and expensive. This is when
Thomas Savery, the initial person who invented and patented the use of steam to pump
water, made his patent of water pump in 1698 which he explained in his own words as
an "engine to raise water by fire”. Savery’s pump worked by simply heating water to
vaporize it, harboring the steam to fill a tank, creating vacuum through separating the
tank from the source of steam and, finally, condensing the steam. With these
mentioned, the vacuum was used to bring up the water from the mines. However, his
invention had blind spots such as: the vacuum could only pull out water from shallow pits
and the pump used steam pressure to remove the water that had been pulled into the
tank which can result to boiler explosions as the pressurized boilers’ designs were not
that advanced.
After Savery, Thomas Newcomen invented the Newcomen Atmospheric Engine in
1712 which was the first commercially successful steam engine to remove water from the
mines using a pump. It is named “atmospheric” because the maximum steam pressure
used is near the atmospheric pressure. However, because Savery’s steam engine was
patented, this hindered Newcomen to sell his innovation. Thus, he was compelled to
partner with Savery despite of his improvements to Savery’s invention such as: improved
engine performance, different manner of vacuum usage, mechanical differences, and
elimination of steam pressure. Unlike Savery’s engine, the Atmospheric Engine contained
steam cylinder/piston which drive the water pump by moving a large wooden beam. The
engine did not use steam pressure for the steam piston to push up. Newcomen’s
invention remained to be the best technology for almost 60 years, however, there were
also blind spots in the engine such as: it was extremely inefficient as a huge amount of
energy was required to use it, the cylinder needed heating and cooling repeatedly every
cycle which wasted energy, and caused large thermal stress.
Finally, James Watt (1736-1819) came into contact to Newcomen’s engine in 1764
when he repaired it and realized how hopelessly inefficient it is. Thus, he worked to
improve it and recognized the problem which are as follows: heat was used to generate
steam, but when the steaming process was done, the cylinder was cooled down.
Repeated heating and cooling of the same cylinder for every stroke of piston was very
costly in energy. Watt had a breakthrough when he thought of equipping the engine with
a separate condensation chamber called condenser. Having separate condenser and
working cylinder, the condenser stayed cold while the cylinder stayed hot all the times.
This eliminated the repeated heating and cooling of the working cylinder in the
Newcomen Engine, thus, reduced the consummation of coal and increased efficiency.
The Watt Engine operated the same with Newcomen Engine, however, Watt’s engine’s
cylinder remained heated at all times. Watt formed partnership with Matthew Boulton
to manufacture the steam engines. In addition, there was a 1782 progress with the
double-acting piston/mechanism- allowed the engine to have forward and backward
piston strokes which improves the efficiency for work, and the rotative engine/motionallowed the engine to power movement in any direction which was good for movement
with repeated cycles.
The development and invention of the steam engine was one of the most significant
technologies in the Industrial Revolution. It was used in other numerous industrial
settings such as mining, mills, textile factories, transportation, etc.
Savery, Newcomen, and Watt’s steam engine
On the other hand, there was also the development of steam turbines. Steam
turbine is a device that harbors thermal energy from pressurized steam which is used to
do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. The earliest device that can be classified
as steam turbine was the aeolipile proposed by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century CE.
The aelopile was a mounted hollow sphere which had two hollow tubes that provided
steam to the sphere. In addition, the sphere had two opposing curved tubes where the
steam escaped from the sphere causing it to revolve. Although, the said aelopile had no
useful utility and was just a mere toy. After the discovery and development of steam
engines by Watt, numerous turbines were proposed and the only successful one is the
units created by Willian Avery in 1837. In Avery Turbine, two hollow arms (about 75
cm long) were attached to a hollow shaft wherein the steam was supplied. At the outer
end of the arms, nozzles were placed which allowed steam to take off in a tangential
direction. Thus, this serves as a catalyst to turn the wheel. However, it was later
abandoned due to its noise level, hard speed regulation, and frequent repairs.
There were no additional developments until the end of 19th century with Sir Charles
Algernon Parsons in 1884. Parsons recognized the significance of allowing the
harboring of thermal energy in the steam little by little through employing number of
stages in series. In addition, he developed the reaction-based principle wherein a
nearly equal energy release and equal pressure drop occurs in both the stationary nozzles
or blades and moving rotor blade passages. Furthermore, he built the first practical
large marine stream turbines. Aside from Parsons, Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval in
the 1880s built reaction turbines with 40,000 revolution a minute to drive cream
separators. However, because of the high speed, it was not suitable for another
commercial implementation. He then developed the single-stage impulse turbines
wherein it used convergent-divergent nozzles. During 1889 to 1897, he constructed many
turbines with capacities approximately 15 to several horsepower. The 15-horsepower
turbines he built was the first engaged engine for marine propulsion in 1892. The
multistage impulse turbines were developed by C.E.A Rataeu in 1890 while, at the
same time, the velocity-compounded impulse stage was developed by Charles G.
Curtis. By 1900s, steam turbine developed immensely as the largest unit was able to
produce 1,200 kilowatts to more than 30,000 kilowatts in the span of 10 years.
Throughout the years, the capacity of steam turbines to produce thousands of kilowatts
became normal and the units are now used for power plants, electric power production,
machine powering, etc.
Old steam turbine and Modern steam turbines
Similar to this, there was also the development of internal combustion engine.
The internal combustion engine is an engine that harness motive power by burning fuel,
oil or gasoline with air inside the engine. In the 19th century, the internal combustion
engine emerged which resulted from people’s greater understanding of the principle of
thermodynamics and the search for an adequate substitute for steam power. However,
there were encountered problems with this, such as the search for the most suitable fuel
and the ignition of fuel in an enclosed area to produce movement that was supposed to
be done quickly and easily. In relation to these, the first problem was solved through the
introduction of gas supplies. Etienne Lenoir in 1859 was the first inventor to make the
first successful gas engine. Lenoir’s invention was closely carved from the horizontal
steam engine. It had the mixture of air and explosive gas which was ignited by an electric
spark located on the sides of the piston. His engine was running adequately, however,
the operation was expensive. It was until 1878 that Nikolaus Otto refined Lenoir’s
engine. Otto’s gas engine became successful commercially. The four-stroke cycle was
adopted by him which is an induction-compression-firing-exhaust cycle. In addition, it
was in 1870s and late 1880s when the engines used the vapor of heavy oil as the
substitute for town gas. It was used specifically by places too isolated for the said gas.
It was in 1892 when Rudolf Diesel patented his refinement to the already known
heavy-oil engine. Diesel developed an engine with ensured high thermal efficiency
through securing the spontaneous ignition of the oil by utilizing air with very high
compression. Although the engine was not immediately suitable for locomotion, he
improved it and became a significant form of vehicular propulsion in the 20th century. On
the other hand, there was also the predomination of the light high-speed gasoline or
petrol. Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz were the first people who applied the said new
engine to locomotive purposes. In 1885, they developed their own design of the first
motorcycle and motorcar. Similarly, the “horseless carriage” of Benz’s became the
modern-day automobile prototype. By the end of the 19th century and start of 20th
century, the internal combustion engine was utilized for transportation and industrial
applications, challenging the steam engine with its utilization.
Internal combustion engine
2. Choose 1 middle or modern age invention and cite the most recent advancement
today of that discovery.
There were many inventions during the medieval and modern age that contributed to
the development of our modern technology; one of these is the Printing Press of
Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. Although, the movable type printing was already available
in England before the innovation of Gutenberg, the said method was inefficient, slow,
complicated, and very expensive which made it impossible to print books in bulk.
Fortunately, Johannes Gutenberg had an experience with goldsmithing and metalwork
which skills he utilized for the endeavor of creating a substantially more effective and
efficient printing press. He successfully did this by inventing a new system which utilized
the existing printing equipment in a different way. He used type metal alloy, which is an
alloy of antimony, lead, and tin used to type characters for printing, and hand mold for
casting type. The molds he made use of were easily adjustable, the inks he used were a
lot more durable, and the movable type he utilized was mechanical and easier to use.
Thus, the Gutenberg’s Press was able to manufacture large quantities of books at an
impressive speed and for a relatively little cost.
In relation with this, in today’s time, the printing industry is rapidly changing with
different advances and innovations as the technology develops with it. These days,
printing in bulks can be done easily using printers which are widely available, unlike in
the past with the printing press. The most recent advancements of the Printing Press are
the Digital Inkjet Printing and 3D printing. The Digital Inkjet Printing is a type
of printing without “printing plates” which are used in offset printing and recreate digital
pictures or texts by propelling ink droplets to a paper or plastic. Some of the benefits of
the said printing are as follows: it has no limitations with colors, has quick printing with
full color print, has low cost because of the absence of printing plates, has simple process
which enables people to print easily, and is environmental friendly as it reduces ink
wastes. On the other hand, there is the rise of 3D printing or additive manufacturing
in the market. In 3D printing, the process of printing is no longer only on a flat sheet of
paper and ink. The 3D printer manufactures three-dimensional objects by placing down
materials layer by layer in congruence to the item’s 3D digital model.
Gutenberg printing press, Digital Injekt printing,
and 3d printing
References:
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https://www.bibalex.org/SCIplanet/en/Article/Details.aspx?id=71
Buchanan, R. A. (2019, October 10). History of Technology- The Industrial Revolution.
Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-oftechnology/The-Industrial-Revolution-1750-1900
Budenholzer, R. (2017, March 27). History of steam turbine technology. Retrieved from:
https://www.britannica.com/technology/turbine/Wind-turbines
Lira, C. (2013). Brief History of the Steam Engine. Retrieved from:
https://www.egr.msu.edu/~lira/supp/steam/
Lumencandela. (n.d.). Steam Power. Retrieved from:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/steampower/
MedievealChronoicles. (n.d.). Printing Press. Retrieved from:
https://www.medievalchronicles.com/medieval-history/medieval-inventionslist/printingpress/#:~:text=The%20Printing%20press%20was%20a,was%20taking%20plac
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Mimaki. (n.d.). Advantages of Digital Printing. Retrieved from:
https://mimaki.com/topics/product/inkjet_printer/advantage-digital-printing.html
TheTechnologyHeadlines. (2020, October 20). Latest Technologies in Printing World.
Retrieved from: https://www.thetechnologyheadlines.com/technology/printtechnologies/Latest-Technologies-in-Printing-World/