Importance of the Steam Engine

The importance of the steam engine lies in their participation in the call Industrial Revolution, which changed the course of the history of civilization in the last decades of the eighteenth century. As a consequence of the creation and diffusion of these teams, an unprecedented economic expansion took place in England, with later expansion into the rest of Western Europe, the United States, and other nations of the world. The resulting increased industrial production modified the pattern of trade in the five continents and indirectly influenced the independence of the imperial colonies in different regions of the Earth.

In simplified terms, the steam machine It is a model of external combustion engine. Induction water heating training of steam allows the release of large aliquots of thermal energy, which is reconverted into mechanical energy through a process that involves pistons, connecting rods and cranks. This transmission chain makes it possible to generate a rotational movement that generates the necessary propulsion for manufacturing structures or for different vehicles, including locomotives and ships.

The original design was progressively replaced by modern ones. steam engines capable of converting thermal energy into electrical energy. To this end, a continuous flow of steam is generated, which is why they are currently considered as turbines. It is noted that, by virtue of the appearance of other technical resources, in modern times steam engines they are used only occasionally and, in general, as complementary and auxiliary elements.

The great importance of steam engines It is evident in its historical continuity, with different variations, almost up to the first half of the 20th century. In that period, the thermal impulse generated by the mineral coal still mobilized the steam engines, until achieve the greatest diffusion of modern internal combustion engines in which fuels are applied fossils. At a later stage, nuclear energy and renewable energy (hydroelectric and wind) seem to have definitively displaced the steam engine as an energy generating resource immediate. However, its very low cost and its technology simple constitute parameters that make the steam machine It can be a tool for small communities or as a complement to obtain energy in a fast and accessible way.