Marine steam engines were used for sea travel for over 100 years until diesel engines became the standard. They used heated steam to move pistons connected to a drive mechanism, and different designs were developed, including compound and triple expansion engines. The first commercial steamboat was developed by Robert Fulton in 1807.
A marine steam engine is a type of steam engine designed for use on a ship or other marine vessel. Steam engines began to appear on ships in the early 19th century and were the main type of engine used for motorized sea travel for most of the next 100 years, when diesel engines began to supplant steam engines as the standard for boat propulsion. A host of designs, improvements, and configurations appeared during this time, but every marine steam engine worked on the same basic principle of using heated steam to get work done.
The first working steam engine was invented in the late 17th century, but it was not developed with commercial success until the early 18th century. It was almost 100 years later, in 1807, that the first commercial steamboat design was developed by an American, Robert Fulton. Early marine steam engines were somewhat unreliable and underpowered, but improvements were quickly made by engineers and inventors in the United States and Europe, and within another 30 years, steamships were making regular transatlantic voyages.
The first ships equipped with these types of engines had boilers that used wood as fuel. Later many ships used coal for fuel. A boiler, a large sealed tank containing water, was heated to produce steam, which created pressure within the closed system. This pressure was used to move one or more pistons in cylinders. The pistons were connected by mechanical means to a drive mechanism, which was used to turn a paddle wheel, or later, in more advanced ships, a propeller screw.
Single expansion steam engines had cylinders that operated under the same pressure, and in the early stages of marine steam engine development all steam engines were designed in this way. Later, the compound expansion steam engine was developed, which had cylinders operating under successively lower pressures as steam was fed through the cylinders in succession, cooling as it passed through each one before returning to the bottom. the boiler. Engines of this type were generally designed with two cylinders. Composite engines with three cylinders were known as triple expansion engines.
The method by which a marine steam engine transferred power from the pistons to the transmission mechanism was the second item in the classification of an engine. Many different power transfer designs were developed during the time when steam engines were prevalent. A type of engine known as a side-lever engine, in which the pistons were connected to two large levers mounted on the sides of the engine, was the main type of marine steam engine during the early years of steam power. Later designs included the steeple, crosshead, oscillating, and walking beam engines.
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