steam engine
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The Newcomen Engine
[The Newcomen engine] belongs to that small but select group of inventions that have decisively change the course of history.” – D. S. L. Cardwell [1] The path to Sadi Carnot led through Denis Papin’s pioneering work with the piston (click here) and into Thomas Newcomen’s (1664-1729) invention of the first commercial steam engine in… Continue reading
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From Ancient Forests to Industrial Power: Unearthing Britain’s Coal Legacy
The financial incentive to develop the steam engine in Britain was to remove water from coal mines so that miners could dig deeper. I discussed this in a previous post (click here), but what I didn’t discuss was why there was so much coal there to begin with. Where did all that coal come from?… Continue reading
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Thermo (Q) and dynamics (W) meet for the first time inside the piston
Thermodynamics arguably began with the piston, since it was the invention of the piston that first enabled the transformation of heat into work. In 1850 Rudolf Clausius quantified this transformation in his 1st Law of Thermo (heat)-Dynamics (work) when he conducted an energy balance around the piston: ∆U = Q - W The change in internal energy (U) of… Continue reading
Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics. “Hanlon has written a masterpiece.” – Mike Pauken, Senior Engineer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and author of Thermodynamics for Dummies
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About Me
Hi! I’m Bob Hanlon. After earning my Sc.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and enjoying a long career in both industry and academia, I’ve returned to school, my own self-guided school, seeking to better understand the world of thermodynamics. Please join me on my journey.
Recent Posts
- The Machinery Underneath – update on my 2nd thermodynamics book
- Top 10 behaviors to achieve a successful career
- The Machinery Underneath – update on my 2nd thermodynamics book
- Share your story! Tell us your mass and energy balance moment.
- The Machinery Underneath – update on my 2nd thermodynamics book
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