IEEC2.2 18 The Development of Steam Engines in The Netherlands (1750-1885)

The Development of Steam Engines

in The Netherlands (1750-1885)

Jan van de Veen

An off-print from

Transactions of the 2nd International Early Engines Conference - Volume 2 pp155-182

Summary

In the Netherlands, a sea going nation, sending merchant ships all over the world, there was not much interest in an innovation like the atmospheric engine erected by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. Moreover, the use of wind power by traditional windmills was very well developed.

Only some philosophers, like Steven Hoogendijk (1698-1788), took an interest and, together with his fellows from the Batavian Society, promoted science in a wider sense and the use of steam engines in particular. It took another sixty years (1776) before the first atmospheric engine (a vuurmachine in the Dutch language)  was built in Rotterdam. It did not turn out as a success, but soon a second engine was built that performed very well.

Without a substantial national engineering industry, steam engines had to be imported from England. But, slowly progress was made and several engines performed successfully. This paper gives an impression of the developments made in using steam as a source of power in the Netherlands over the period 1760-1885. It does not cover all of the engines erected in the early period. Of course, in the early period most were for land drainage stations (stoomgemaal).