Chapter 8 John Smeaton’s Fire Engine Trials

In: Early Modern Fire
Author:
Andrew M.A. Morris
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Chapter
Pages:
225–254
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004521766_010

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Abstract

The early history of the steam engine is dominated by James Watt’s invention of the separate condenser in 1765. Unfortunately, this achievement has overshadowed the no less significant improvements made around the same period by fellow engineer John Smeaton, during a series of trials on a prototype steam engine he built at his home near Leeds, UK. This chapter will give an account of Smeaton’s trials and the improvements he made, as well as exploring in more detail the methods he used. Since his youth, Smeaton had been perfecting ways of improving scientific instruments, experimental apparatuses and works of engineering. The steam engine trials showcase this approach at its most mature, when Smeaton was at the pinnacle of his career. I argue that Smeaton played a key role in the transformation of engineering from a tradition-based practice that used ad hoc trial-and-error to solve problems, into a methodologically systematic activity based on a universally applicable problem-solving approach based on parameter variation, that tests hypotheses, improves optimization and provides general rules for the functioning of machines.

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Early Modern Fire

Science, Technology, and the Urban Space

Series:  Intersections, Volume: 95
Cover Early Modern Fire
E-Book ISBN:
9789004521766
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
05 Nov 2024
Front Matter
Introduction: the Early Modern Fire
Part 1 Fire in Early Modern Science
Part 2 Early Modern Fire Technologies
Part 3 Fire in the Urban Space
Back Matter

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