IEEC2.2 11 From Papin to Pickard: ‘That long wish’d for Desideratum, the applying the powers of the fire engine to rotular movements’

From Papin to Pickard:

‘That long wish’d for Desideratum, the applying the powers of

the fire engine to rotular movements’

John Townley

An off-print from

Transactions of the 2nd International Early Engines Conference - Volume 2 pp29-48

Summary

This paper charts the development of the direct application of steam power, from an atmospheric engine, to the production of rotary motion. Involving a motley cast of characters the story stretches from Denis Papin’s proposed steam tug to the successful application of the crank & flywheel. In telling this story it aims to help dispel the myth of James Watt as the originator of rotary power from the steam engine.

‘We are, as it were, laying gunpowder, grain by grain, under the old building of error and superstition, which a single spark may hereafter inflame, so as to produce an instantaneous explosion; in consequence of which, that edifice, the erection of which has been the work of ages, may be overturned in a moment, and so effectually, as that the same foundation can never be built upon again’.