Why Engines Work

I started thinking about this this morning in how it is helpful to understand how all engines work. But, it all started with people asking questions, philosophic questions about what was happening in the world around them.

First, I think it was in ancient Greece, someone built a sphere that could be filled with water and placed it on two pivots and then heated the water in the sphere and made it out of copper I believe and then created two vents for the steam to escape the sphere after the built a fire under the copper sphere and then the sphere spun from the steam escaping in such a way that the sphere spun on the pivots they had built. This was one of the first engines. Before this you had wind power for sailboats and you had water power that spun things that ground grain and created mills to grind up grain for making bread and other baking products or for hulling different grains and other purposes.

Otherwise, people had to do all the work and this created the need for many workers or slaves around the world before engines were created by asking questions in a philosophic sense which led to all the science.

The first real engine that could be mobile was the steam engine unless you call a sailboat an engine which I don't think exactly works to call a sailboat an engine. IF you do call a sailboat an engine then likely a sailboat is the first engine.

But, I believe the first engine would be a steam engine where you actually have moving parts. The first steam engine was invented in 1698. begin quote:

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1698

While the Spaniard first patented a steam-operated machine for use in mining, an Englishman is usually credited with inventing the first steam engine. In 1698, Thomas Savery, an engineer and inventor, patented a machine that could effectively draw water from flooded mines using steam pressure.Mar 19, 2014

Who Invented the Steam Engine? | Live Science

end quote.

The Steam engine  eventually made it's way to Locomotives (Train Engines) all over the world. In fact, in January 1986 I rode Steam Trains that still existed in India from Gaya, India to Varanasi, and then from Varanasi to New Delhi and then onward to Pathankot, India and then taking a bus to Dharamshala India in 1986 in January with my family.

The Steam engine created a whole new way to relate to the world starting in 1698. So, by the 1700s and 1800s the Steam engine revolutionized Travel in Europe, the U.S. and throughout most of the world. The principle of the steam engine led to the development of the gasoline engine and the diesel engine.

Without the evolution of the steam engine into becoming trains we likely wouldn't have gasoline engines powering cars and trucks or diesel engines powering cars or trucks either.

What Steam engines and gasoline and diesel engines all have in common is a crankcase and moving cylinders. In the case of a steam engine the steam enters each cylinder in a certain order which powers the cylinders to move which is then transferred to the wheels on the track and causes the engine and whatever it is pulling to move too.

Whereas in a gasoline engine a spark plug ignites the gasoline in a sequential fashion after the gasoline in a spray form is mixed with enough air. Once the gasoline explodes in the cylinder the force of the explosion moves the cylinder. If there is more than one cylinder the timing of each cylinder firing becomes more and more important as you add cylinders to the engine for power.

In the case of a diesel engine you are firing not from a spark plug but from compressing the diesel and air mixture to where it explodes. But, it's also important to remember we likely wouldn't have either gasoline engines or diesel engine now if the steam engines were not developed first to show people the way to create gasoline and diesel engines.

Next we have electric motors. The problem originally around the early 1900s was that even though electric power is far more efficient than gasoline and diesel engines, we didn't have batteries good enough then to actually make electric cars practical if they had to carry their own power. Only Electric Trolleys where the electricity is provided by continual contact with electric lines was possible and electric trains also always in contact with electric lines was possible. 

So, it wasn't until you have batteries like you do in something like the Tesla where the batteries are finally good enough to power a vehicle driving 200 to 400 miles at one time without recharging.

As you can see I was trying to show you the philosophy of how and why Steam, Gasoline and Diesel and Electric motors were invented so people could go places faster without riding horses or sailing in boats or ships using steam, gasoline, diesel and electric batteries.