ABSTRACT
The needs of industry were affording scope for new applications of engine power, fresh brains were at work, a flux of ideas set in, inventive talent seemed to be released. The developments that took place in consequence may be said to have taken place roughly in three directions and to have progressed contemporaneously: the appearance of a number of new types of engines, the rise of the Cornish engine and the compound engine from the Watt pumping engine, and the invention of the high-pressure engine. The term “high pressure” connotes an engine which dispenses with the vacuum and works solely by the pressure of steam above the atmosphere, into which the steam is discharged after it has done its office. The high-pressure engine lent itself to being made in small sizes and was fitted to perform the humblest task, even that of a few labourers; this vastly extended the range of industry that steam power could serve.
