"pyotr filipivich" wrote in message
...
John B. Slocomb on Sat, 30 Aug 2014 07:49:16

I'm not sure that all innovations, internal combustion engines for
example, are designed in isolation. The steam Engine, if I remember
correctly, was designed specifically to pump water out of mines, and
later used for transportation.

"We have this thing, what else can we do with it?" Steam
engines cam out of the technology for boring cannon barrels. Once
they realized they could pump water, they figured "power source" and
started putting Engine on what ever they could fit one too. Some
where in the files I have the designs for a steam powered model
airplane.
--
pyotr filipivich

The first steam machine that performed useful work was Thomas Savery's
1698 pump, which applied the steam pressure and vacuum directly to the
water it sucked up and then blew out of the mine. The only moving
parts were manually operated steam and water valves, except when the
walls of the boiler decided to make a run for freedom. The result of
explosions was that steam under pressure was avoided for a century,
instead the Newcomen (and Watt) engine condensed unpressurized steam
to create a vacuum that pulled the piston down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...e_steam_engine

Watt didn't really "discover" that steam pressure was useful by
watching a teakettle, in fact he actively opposed attempts to employ
steam under pressure. The real unheralded genius who developed the
high pressure steam engine was Oliver Evans, safely out of Watt's
reach in Philadelphia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Evans

-jsw