Abstract
AMONG the vast number of ingenious inventors whose work is the heritage of to-day, a prominent place must be accorded to Thomas Newcomen, who invented the atmospheric steam engine. Newcomen died in London on Aug. 5, 1729, two hundred years ago. Steam power, which is now of universal application, drives our factories, propels our ships, transports our trains, and waters, drains and lights our cities, raises our minerals, ventilates our mines, irrigates our fields, and ministers to our needs in a thousand ways. If for certain purposes oil and gas have displaced steam, it should be remembered that the first airship, the first aeroplane, and the first self-propelled carriages were driven by steam, and the internal combustion engine itself owes much to the steam engine.
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The Bicentenary of Thomas Newcomen. Nature 124, 184–185 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124184a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124184a0