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Stationary steam engines use steam to power tools and machinery from a fixed position. They were invented by Savery and improved by Newcomen, Watt, and others. Variants include the beam engine, table engine, Corliss engine, and Uniflow engine. Hornblower created the first compound stationary steam engine.
A stationary steam engine uses the power of steam to drive tools other than itself. They were usually used to power bridges, barriers, operate mills and factory machinery. Later models were used to generate electricity. Such engines operate from a fixed position and are not used as means of transportation, although some have been used to drive the wheels of steamships.
Basic steam engines operate when high pressure steam is allowed into a cylinder. This cylinder has a piston which is pushed in one direction by the steam, expelling the cooled exhaust steam from a vent and creating movement through the piston rod. This motion moves the wheels of a steam train, propelling the engine forward. Such engines push the piston in one direction, then the other by alternating which end of the cylinder the steam enters.
The first stationary steam engine was invented by Thomas Savery and then improved upon by fellow Englishman Thomas Newcomen and Scotsman, James Watt. In 1698 Savery invented a steam engine that would pump water from a Cornish colliery. Its basic design was improved in the 18th and 19th centuries, but was replaced by electricity and the combustion engine in the 20th.
In 1705, Newcomen invented the first beam engine. This stationary steam engine employed a pivoted beam connected to a vertical piston cylinder below. Watt, among others, improved the engine by adding a supercharger. The beam engine was mainly used to pump water and to drive mill wheels. It was also used on steamships.
A short-lived variant of the stationary engine was the table engine. This engine was similar to the beam engine, but rested on a tabletop base and was connected to a flywheel via a connecting rod and cross head. James Sadler invented the engine and used it at Portsmouth Block Mills. Compared to other engines, it was both slow and weak.
George Henry Corliss, an American, added rotary valves to the basic stationary steam engine idea to create the Corliss engine. First built in 1848, the Corliss allowed for variable timing in the operation of its valves. It was mainly used for the extraction of trees in factories and the generation of electricity by dynamos, as it was very fuel efficient.
In 1828, James Perkins developed the Uniflow engine which used a half cylinder and allowed the piston to move in only one direction. Since exhaust and fuel vapor always entered the respective ends of the cylinder, this led to higher thermal efficiency. The Uniflow was adapted for various steam engines but was mainly used for the generation of electricity.
British inventor James Hornblower created the first compound stationary steam engine in 1781. He reasoned that if energy and action could be generated from pressurized steam in one cylinder, then that same steam could be moved to another cylinder to generate more power . Hornblower built engines in which there were at least two cylinders and each piston after the first reacted to lower pressure.
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