The Newcomen Engine

• Engraving of Newcomen Engine
• Engraving of Newcomen Engine
• The Newcomen Engine Today

 

The Newcomen Engine was the world's first steam engine. Built in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen, this was the first successful engine to use steam as a power source. It was actually used as a pumping engine to pump water out of the coal mines belonging to the Earl of Dudley. The engraving was produced by Thomas Barney in 1719.

Thomas Newcomen was born in Dartmouth, Devon, in 1664, and as an ironmonger he supplied tools and materials to copper and tin mines and was aware of the drainage problem there .Assisted by John Calley, a local plumber, he began to experiment, possibly about 1707/8, with models in his Dartmouth workshops. About 1710 they may have built a full size engine for Cornish mine, but if they did it was not a success; what little is known of these experiments has probably been romanticised. But in 1712 the two men erected their first successful pumping engine near Dudley. The exact site is not known, but could have been more than a mile from the site of the replica on site.

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