WEBVTT - Running on Steam 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.560 Get in touch with technology, with tech stuff from stuff 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:15.280 COMI everyone, and welcome to tech stuff from our brand 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:20.079 new exciting audio studios. Yeah, we haven't put up the 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.560 baffling yet, so we're baffled, but the room is not. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.600 Today we are going to tackle steam engines. But by 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.960 the way, that's Jonathan Strictland speaking. I'm Lauren. Oh my gosh, 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:31.840 I haven't done this in so long. I forgot how 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.640 to introduce the show. Guy goes on a vacation for 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.120 like a week and he comes back and total news 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.320 a week and a half actually, but yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.280 I thank you Lauren for introducing everybody. We're talking about 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.720 steam engines today and how they work and the principles 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:52.040 behind them, and it really comes down to thermodynamics, you know, 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.200 you're talking about heat really and what heat does and 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.720 how it changes things, and that's you know, harnessing that 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.720 has allowed us to have a little bit of a 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:08.240 revolution industrially speaking. Do do pretty goodness, migracious. I'm slow today. 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.600 It took me like four seconds together. You're slow. You 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.399 didn't forget to introduce you everybody. We're both on okay, 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.000 but so yeah, so the thing about gases um when 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.920 when when you heat them up, they they do stuff. Yeah, 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.280 they move the molecules and the gases move around a 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.800 lot more than they usually do. So let's say let's 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:28.560 say you've got a liquid all right, You've got all 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.120 those molecules together in the like with their chain together, right, 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.880 they formed this this collection of molecules that are all 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.200 part of a larger hole. So example, you've got a 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.360 bucket of water. Those molecules are all bound together to 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.720 make that water. Now you can you can separate some 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.520 water from that, but the molecules within that separate section 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.600 they're still bound together. It's not like you've just freed 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:52.760 them and they're now flying all over the place. But 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:57.080 if you add energy, as in heat to that water 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.000 and you boil the water, that water starts to boil 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.040 all off and form steam. It's the gas form of 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.560 that substance. And now the molecules can break free of 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.079 each other. So now you've got these free flowing molecules 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.600 that are zipping around at high speed depending upon how 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.640 much heat you've put into the system. And as it 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.760 turns out, they exert pressure. I mean, this has momentum. 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.320 It if it hits against stuff, it can press against stuff, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.000 and if you're able to harness that in some way, 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.079 you can make that do work. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.680 it's you know, when you've got a sealed container and 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.040 you create steam inside of it, it's going to exert 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.320 pressure on the sides of that container, which can then 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.120 do work yeah, or explode, as it turns out, depending 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.320 upon what you've made the container out of and how 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.079 hot you've made that water. Uh yeah. Because that's the 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.239 other thing, is that water when it goes into steam, 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.959 it's expanding, right, You're talking about making it, uh take 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.800 up more space than normally would, more volume than it 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.320 normally would, and that, as it turns out, is a 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.480 very important part of some releast steam engines the idea 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.119 that you can make something uh take up more room 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.280 and as it condenses, meaning that when the steam starts 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.560 to cool down and turned back into water, it's taking 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:13.640 up less room. Right, It's going to create a little 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.840 bit of a vacuum. Right, you can also use to 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.800 do work. Yeah. So both of those those things, the 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.320 idea of steam being able to press against stuff and 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.720 the idea of steam once it condenses, creating a vacuum, 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.600 those are the basic principles behind your your various kinds 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.480 of steam engines. Now, this idea is not brand new. 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.440 First of all, you've got a lot of people who 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.600 will cite that a certain person named James Watt was 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.160 the inventor of the steam engine. As it turns out, 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.640 that's being a little premature to say that he did. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.280 I mean he would. He certainly played an instrumental role 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.440 in making steam engines Uh practical. But you have to 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.160 go way back if you want to look at the 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.840 people who were really the inventors as far as we 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.480 know of steam engines. That keep in mind, we're talking 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.880 right now about the first recorded instances of people talking 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.200 about steam engines. That the idea itself might even be older, right, right, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:12.720 But the first recorded instances are from the first century, yeah, 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.560 common era. We're talking a hero or heroon or heroes 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.360 or heroes of Alexandria. Uh. He was. He was a 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:25.080 Greek mathematician and UH inventor. Yep. He was born in Egypt, 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.520 lived and worked and mostly in Alexandria, but was of 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.200 Greek origin and uh did a lot of different works. 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.040 You know, he invented a lot of different things, or 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.640 at least wrote about a lot of things that we 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.800 presume he invented in MAJORI will be that he was 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:41.800 just writing about stuff that other people have done, but 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.159 as far as we know, he's the one who originated 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.040 these ideas. Yeah, he had a few inventions that he 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:51.240 wrote about. A coin operated device, Yeah, yeah, I don't 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.080 even know if it was like a you know, sandal 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.520 vending machine or something, or you know, uh, put a 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.920 coin in and watch the lion eat somebody. I don't 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.520 hoping fortune teller. Um it's zartan you make up. I 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.640 wish I were big. Uh, Yeah, I don't know. He 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.840 also wrote a lot about the discoveries of the Babylonians, 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:16.120 the Egyptians and also other Greeks and also the Romans, 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.360 and a bunch of stuff about the properties of air, 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.919 which is going to come very much in handy for 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:22.800 one of these other things that he described. Yeah, the 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.359 uh I think you're you're referring to the A la pile? 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:28.760 Is that how you say that? How I say it? 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:30.960 I'll tell you how it's spelled. It's a E O 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.640 L I P I L E. And I do not 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.240 speak Greek. It's all Greek to me, so I and 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.080 Lawrence just shaking her head disapprovingly. Can you can you 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.680 hear in our Echoi studio the rattle of my head 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.960 shaking a job? I can certainly see it better. Uh, this, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.640 this room is better lit than our other studio was. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.000 It's much larger. It's it's like a nice cave. It is, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.159 it is a nice cave. So this, this device that 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:02.280 Heron or Hero or Heros designed, was an early form 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.120 of what we would consider a steam engine, although from 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.719 what we can tell, it was mostly meant a sort 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.080 of a decoration or distraction, a right, more and more 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:12.840 like a toy, And several of the things that we're 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.040 going to be talking about from these early periods are 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.880 more likely to be toys than anything else. Yeah, because concepts. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.080 It was the idea of exploring this, this nature of 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.800 well steam can do these these wild wacky things. I 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.320 don't know how we would do this in anything, and 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:29.760 I don't know how we would use this in any 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.720 practical way, but look at this cool thing and what 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.920 it can do. So what his could do was it 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.200 was imagined like a big bowl made out of some 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.000 metal like brass. They got a big brass bowl. It's 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.880 actually sealed, so you put water in it, but then 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.599 you put a water tight seal on there. Uh. It 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.440 does have two pipes that come up from the top 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.120 of the seal that then meet up with a sphere 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.640 that is mounted on these two pipes. All right, the 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.560 sphere itself can can rotate, uh along this axis that 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.520 the pipes make. There's some sort of steam tight ball 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.360 bearings that were involved. I guess. Also, by the way, 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.840 we don't know that this was ever built, but this 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.120 was his design. So in the the idea was that 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.200 you put the water inside this bowl, you would heat 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.120 up the bowl, the water would convert into steam, which 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.600 would go up into the pipes into the sphere. And 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.080 the sphere itself had two nozzles or two jets on 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.080 on on opposite sides I believe, right opposite sides facing 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.760 so that they would allow the ball to rotate once 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.640 steam escapes, the same way that if you attached to 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.080 bottle rockets to two sides of a wheel, um, and 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.760 then you know, let it let's let it push it along, right, 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.280 So in this case the pushing is kind of interesting. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.560 So let's talk about what's going on inside that sphere, 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.360 which as far as we know was never actually built. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:51.840 But inside that sphere, now, if the sphere had no nozzles, 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.120 if there were no there were no openings, there were, 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:55.680 but somehow there was just water in there that you 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.120 had converted into steam. That steam would be pressing, pressing 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:03.600 equally on on all surfaces sphere interior. So in other words, 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:05.080 if you're looking at it, if you were able to 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.880 slow things down to just look at things like a 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.600 nanosecond at a time, and you were able to observe 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:16.200 individual molecules, you would see these molecules bouncing off the 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.200 various interior surfaces of that sphere. But because they're going 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.960 in all directions, they're canceling each other out, which means 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:27.200 that the ball itself is staying still relative to its environment. Hypothetically, 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.360 assuming it's a perfect sphere and that there aren't any 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.080 you know, major design flaws right there, Like there's not 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.840 some weird thing there that's blocking where molecules can usually hit. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.240 But if you put an opening in that sphere, that 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.200 means some of the molecules are going to go through 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.760 the opening and escape, So that means they are not 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.440 exerting that force inside the sphere on the opposite side 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.240 where molecules are banging against that that edge of the 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.960 sphere that makes the sphere move. So in other words, 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.640 it's not even that steam is escaping, it's that the 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.600 steam that steam that is escaping is not counteracting the force. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.960 That's that it's uh, counterparts are doing inside that sphere, 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.360 which I think is kind of an interesting explanation when 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.240 you think about it. And Uh, there was a a 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.040 site I was reading where his example was, imagine you 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.400 have a cardboard box, but you've taken the bottom and 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.440 the top off of it, and you've taken one of 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.079 the walls off of it, and then you put a 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.120 whole bunch of kids in there just running around, and 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:23.720 whenever they hit one of the sides of the walls, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.760 they careen off in a different direction. But because there's 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.400 one section side that doesn't have a wall, sometimes kids 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.560 just keep on running and they're they're outside of the box. Meanwhile, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.800 the kids who are hitting the opposite side where there 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.319 is a wall are moving the box further and further. Yeah, 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.760 so it's forward motion keeps going, but it's left and 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.440 right motions stay more or less the same because they 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.280 get canceled out by the various kids. I thought, what 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.920 an interesting way to do that, And now I want 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.319 to Now I want to build this and I want 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.800 to watch it happen, probably from you know, a fifty 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.400 foot observation tower. I don't kids and me. That's not 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:01.800 I picture that we could use podcasters instead of children. 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:05.480 We probably could, although we've got some kind of lazy podcasters. 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.440 I don't know. They might, you know, just kind of 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:14.920 push the wall. Our podcasters zombies. Well, you know, I 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.400 mostly interact with them after lunch, so that's always when 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.120 we get this snoozies. Alright. So anyway, that was the 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.080 basis behind his idea, but he also had another one 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.120 that would use steam to do work. That was my 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.880 favorite example, so I had to include it. Yeah, this 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.160 one I had not seen it, but so so there 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.559 was a steam powered temple doors. That was the idea 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.160 he I've got this great illustration. I'll show you after 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.440 the podcast, Laura. I'll put it up on our social 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.560 too when we when we get this podcast out. But 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.280 the idea was really kind of interesting. So in the illustration, 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.040 there's this altar and these temple doors, and the altar 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.040 has a little area in it where you could set 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.160 a sacrificial fire. Now that fire, the idea was that 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.160 the fire would heat up water that would create steam. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.120 It would push the steam into a second container. That container, 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.839 in turn had a tube leading out of it, and 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.079 the other end of the tube would lead into a bucket. Now, 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.520 from what I can tell, it looks like the idea 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.760 is that the steam would push into this container. The 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.040 container would push more steam in through this other tube 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.120 that was leading to the bucket, and there the steam 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.600 would start to cool down and condense it turned into water. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.400 So when that would turn the water, the water would 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:27.040 flow into the bucket. Yeah, which makes it heavy. And 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.959 the bucket itself is suspended by a pulley, and so 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.000 because the bucket gets heavier, it starts to exert force 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.320 on the pulley and eventually would pull the pulley so 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.000 that the ropes on the other side of the pulley 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.400 would actually split into two ropes wrapping around these two columns. 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.720 And as those ropes the tension grew, it would make 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.800 those columns rotate. The rotation of the columns in turn 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.920 would open the temple doors. So by lighting the fire, 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.200 you would entice the gods to open the doors for 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.280 you allowing people into your temple. Now, as it turns out, 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.560 I think that this was probably a lot of work 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:03.400 to open doors when you could just walk up and 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.880 open them push it. But as it turns out, that's 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.320 one of the reasons why steam technology took so long 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.080 to develop. Even though we're talking about just you know, 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.640 just a few decades into the Common era, that's when 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.040 we're talking about steam engines. The reason we weren't using 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:19.640 them for work is because there were a lot of 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.040 other sources for work back in those days. Like the 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.600 Romans had lots and lots of slaves, and as it 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.840 turns out, the the history of Europe had lots of 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.360 that kind of thing. Either it was either slavery or serfdom. Anyway, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:33.959 there was a lot of source of cheap labor out there, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.760 so you didn't have to worry about building things to 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:42.640 make labor easier. That's what those unfortunate people were for. Um. Yeah, 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.360 and and also also you know, the metal working at 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.200 the time was not such that you could safely build 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.840 boiler chambers that would really withstand the pressures necessary. Right, 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.439 you had a lot of these devices. We wouldn't get 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.600 into that until like the exactly you could build low 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.680 pressure steam steam boilers, but low pressure means that you 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.560 can't do a lot of work with them. They do 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.320 you know, you're releasing steam, You're generaing steam and releasing 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.240 steam in a way where it's not exerting the kind 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.040 of pressure you would need to do anything really significant 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.960 unless you were to be incredibly clever with your design. 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:16.960 But we'll get into that. We we have to go 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:18.720 a little bit further before we get to that part. 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.280 But but these were the fundamentals, right of steam power, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.520 This idea of being able to to change water into 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.280 another form and make it do work. It would just 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.800 take a you know, a millennia and change before anyone 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.680 started to think about it in another more practical way. Yeah. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:41.480 Our next own factor is from three Blasco Degara. He 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.760 was an officer in the Smash Navy. And we don't 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.560 know for sure that he actually tried to do this 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.760 or that what he proposed was in fact a steam engine, 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.760 because it's pretty vague, but he was talking about creating 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.720 some sort of paddle boat that may have been steam powered. Yeah. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.880 The phrase used in the literature vessel of boiling water. Right, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.640 so as far as we know, the vessel of boiling water, well, 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.439 you could guess that, well, that must mean that he 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.960 was using steam in some way, But because there isn't 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.679 enough context there, we can't be certain. But it sounds 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.040 like the idea was that you would use some sort 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.280 of vessel of boiling water to generate steam in order 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.120 to turn the paddles on a boat, very much like 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:28.400 we would see uh centuries later. But that the history 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:33.200 books don't record any great Spanish paddle boats sailing across 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:38.280 various European waters. So I guess we can probably draw 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.680 the conclusion that this was an interesting idea that was 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:46.520 never actualized, or if it was, it sunk um. And 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.480 the next one's a sixteen o one, which not that 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:54.400 not that long afterward, when a fellow named Giovanni Batista 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:59.520 de la Porta wrote in a book called Spiritali of 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.160 an invent and that would use steam pressure to raise 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.600 a column of water through a vacuum created by steam 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.320 when it condenses. Now, this is what you were talking 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.400 about earlier, Lauren. Along the same lines, or I guess, 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:12.960 along opposite lines of all of these people who are 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.960 theorizing that you know, you can you can convert steam, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.360 convert water to steam within a closed container, and that 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:22.120 will result in increased pressure. That the opposite, if you 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.680 can condense steam into water, that it will create a vacuum. Right, Yeah, 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.680 and that's that was an interesting idea that would again 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.040 be capitalized on later. But this is the very basis 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.040 of the earliest steam engines that we're doing work. Not 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.120 that you were using steam to push something, but rather 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.520 that you had created a chamber where steam, once it 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.920 cools down and condenses into water, creates the suction force 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.720 through the through creating a vacuum and thus can pull something. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.760 And uh. In fact, as we'll talk about in just 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.360 a couple of minutes, that's really how steam engines got 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.560 their start. Uh. And again it that one of the 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:00.400 nice things about this, and I really do you mean 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.480 it as a nice thing, is that you could use 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.520 a low pressure steam engine to create this effect. You 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.560 didn't have to create high pressure to push something. You 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.360 could just create steam in a low pressure environment, allow 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.320 it to condense, and then it would create this this 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.560 force all on its own. So uh, it ended up 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.480 being a much more safe way of using steam power, 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:24.160 especially early on, before we had really reached the level 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.880 of machining parts that could withstand those intense pressures that 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.720 happen when you create lots of steam in a confined space. 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:33.840 I don't know if any of our listeners are are 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:38.720 familiar with a little program called MythBusters. Uh, MythBusters, of course, 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.720 a Discovery Channel show. I was a huge fan, well 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.080 well before I even worked for How Stuff Works. I 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.840 was a big fan of the show. But I got 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.600 to see MythBusters live in Atlanta. They came down and 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.040 did a behind the scenes kind of tour, and they 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:56.440 talked a little bit about the various explosions that they've 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.640 seen on the show. And the reason why I'm saying 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.040 this is that the the splosion they said was the 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:06.240 most impressive and most terrifying was the water heater explosion, 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.520 because when you have that water under you know, turning 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.840 into steam under that intense pressure, and if you've cut 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.160 off all the safety valves, which you should never ever 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.360 ever do, then yeah, safety valves on on boilers, in fact, 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.320 are one of the terrific inventions without which we probably 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.399 would well, we certainly wouldn't be here, because we'd have 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.919 a totally different world, our world. We never would have 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:33.720 had so, um yeah, because he showed that, you know, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.639 you could essentially it would turn a water heater into 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.920 part bomb, part rocket. And it was just you're talking 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.560 about superheated water that's well past the boiling point due 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.480 to the pressure hitting the air, boiling instantaneously turning into 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.440 super hot steam. So just being close to this, even 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.080 if you weren't hit by shrapnel, you could be burned 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.119 severely just from the steam. This is serious stuff. So 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.960 that's why these low pressure engines were the first four 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.000 ray into steam engines. Although we're still not quite there yet. 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.240 We're just talking about theory at the moment. All Right, 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.399 I've I've got one from sixteen seventy two. Uh, this 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:13.080 was Ferdinand um Verbs I'm going to go with that pronunciation. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.000 Um He He might have he was living in the 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.040 Imperial Chinese Court at the time, and he may have 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.359 created a working steam car or toy. Um. Interesting, he 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.359 at least drew up plans for one, and I'm not sure. Again, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.600 it's it's really yeah, it's it's hard to say a 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.879 lot of these things from these earlier inventors, Uh, you know, 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.840 they haven't survived, so they may have one. We don't 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.880 know if they were ever built and then just were 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.359 destroyed or lost, or we don't know, if you know, 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.840 they just was just in the plans but never actually built. 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.960 One thing that I do believe was built. In sixteen 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.160 seventy nine, a French scientist and math professor named Um 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.879 then from from Yes, France, I already said that excellent, Um, 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.679 I've created the first pressure cooker, which is really a 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.520 direct application of what dela Portia was talking about. Um. 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.000 This is I think the official name translated is the 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:07.000 digester or engine for softening bones, which isn't creepy at all. No, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:08.920 that doesn't make me think of serial killer in the 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:13.720 slightest But by but by attaching to this pressurized chamber 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.120 slighting piston, h you know, and then heating the pot, 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.280 the expanding steam would push the piston up, and then 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.040 the vacuum created when the steam cooled liquid liquid would 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.400 pull the piston back down. Um. And this is going 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.359 to become extremely important very soon. Yeah. Uh. And there 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.000 were a lot of other people who were thinking about 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.080 steam engines at this time. So while you know, you 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.840 would argue that steam engines really didn't come into play 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.800 until the mid seventeen hundreds. It was the sixteen hundreds 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.520 where we had lots of people theorizing about it. They 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.960 were kind of laying the groundwork that would allow the 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:52.760 the following scientists, engineers, mechanics, you know, just interesting people 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.760 who who thought about steam power and and began to 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.320 put it to our to a practical application. They would 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.879 follow and bill upon the discoveries that the their forefathers 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:07.040 had come up with, and those included people like Jacob Besson. 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.159 There's a little guy named Leonardo da vinci Um. He 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.680 had three turtle friends, as I recall, and was trained 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:19.440 by rat Uh, Florence Rivolt, Thomas Grant, Edward Ford. Lots 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.119 of people were really talking about steam at this time, 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.000 and then that leads us up to a fellow who 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:32.600 patented an idea in six Thomas Savory. And he was 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.200 the one who was really interested in this idea of 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.680 using the condensing steam to do work right. Well, okay, 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:41.840 so it's a little bit of background on what he 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.000 what he patented. So coal mines were booming at this 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.880 time because England was facing this timber crisis. There were 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.520 increases in ship building and lots of firewood being used. 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.040 So so coal mining was becoming huge, all right, So 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.920 cole was starting to become the fuel of choice in England, 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.560 and of course that would remain true for the next 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.359 couple of centuries. And so he patented this thing that 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.199 he called the Miner's Friend, um, because a problem in 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.320 coal mines as you wind up getting water in places 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.000 where you really don't want water and yeah, like where 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.600 there are people underground or where you're Yeah exactly, that's 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:19.560