Steam engine

In the late 17th century, many inventors tried to create a steam engine, which would convert thermal energy into mechanical work. This was done by Denis Papin (1647-1712).

Young Denis at the age of 16 became a student of one of the universities of France, studied medicine, received a doctorate and went to seek happiness in Paris. Perhaps he would have remained a doctor, had it not been for the meeting with the Dutch physicist H. Huygens, after which he began to study physics and mechanics.

The steam engine consisted of a cylinder and a piston. If a vacuum is created under the piston, the air column will cause it to move downward, to perform mechanical work. But how to achieve emptiness under the piston? Papen tried to create a vacuum under the piston with explosions of gunpowder, but failed. Then steam was used in the steam engine. Now, instead of gunpowder, there was water under the piston. Papen heated the cylinder - the steam pressure drove the piston up: the burner was moved back - the cylinder cooled down, the steam condensed and the piston went down. And at that time his steam engine produced mechanical work - a load suspended on a rope, thrown over a block, rose.

The steam engine of Papen, created in 1680, did a useful job. It was one of the first "real" steam boilers. But not only the steam engine was the subject of many years of searching for Papen. He proposed the design of a centrifugal pump, designed a melting furnace glass , a steam wagon, invented several machines for lifting water. Most of Papen's technical ideas were never realized.

It should be recalled that the first steam boiler was built by the Englishman Thomas Severi in 1698. It was an iron tank, under which a fire was lit in a firebox. After a while, instead of a tank, a long (up to 10 m) cylinder with a diameter of about 1.5 m began to be used. It was surrounded by masonry, and under it a fire was built. The surface, washed by hot gases, at such boilers was very small. Therefore, they produced very little steam, and because the hot gases basically went into the pipe, the efficiency of such a boiler was very low and their application in steam engines was questioned.