1710: First commerical steam engine – London, England

 
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Animation: Newcomen steam engine.      Watt double-acting steam engine.

Innovation: 1st commerical steam engine
Location: London, England
Year:  1710
By: Thomas Newcomen

In 1712, the Newcomen engine was completed to put into practice in harnessing the use of steam in mechanically powering every day processes. The steam engines were used efficiently throughout the United Kingdom and Europe mainly to pump water out of mines   and wells with less effort than the traditional process.

In 1763, James Watt starts the progress of developing the Newcomen engine to result into today’s concept of steam engines. Watt realized that there was a lot of power wasted through the cooling and heating cylinder. Moreover, James Watt then started studying a solution that traps the heat in the cylinder in order to sustain the same temperature of the very hot steam.

All of these developments indirectly helped the revolution of transporting construction materials across the continent with commercial steamboats appearing in the early 1800’s, and steam-powered trains following soon after. `

Web links to more info about first commerical steam engine: [1], [2]

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