Thomas Newcomen
February 1664 – 5 August 1729
Thomas Newcomen was an English inventor and ironmonger who created the first practical atmospheric steam engine in 1712. His engine, used primarily to pump water out of mines, was the first commercially successful machine to harness steam power and laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Thomas Newcomen.
- Edmond Halley (1656–1742) Overlapped 65 years →
- Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) Overlapped 65 years →
- Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) Overlapped 65 years →
- Mary Astell (1666–1731) Overlapped 63 years →
- Isaac Newton (1643–1727) Overlapped 63 years →
- Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Overlapped 62 years →
Life events
Thomas Newcomen was baptised in Dartmouth in February 1664, the son of a merchant family.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgNewcomen ran an ironmonger's business in Dartmouth, supplying tools and hardware to the tin mines of Devon and Cornwall.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWorking with his assistant John Calley, Newcomen spent roughly a decade experimenting with steam-driven pumping machinery.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBecause Savery's broad 1698 patent covered raising water by fire, Newcomen partnered with Savery's patent interests to commercialize his own engine.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgA devout Baptist, Newcomen was a lay preacher and later an elder in his local congregation in Dartmouth.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgNewcomen's first recorded working engine was erected at the Conygree Coalworks near Dudley in 1712 to pump water from the mine.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBy the mid-1720s Newcomen engines were draining mines across Britain and had been exported to continental Europe, making it the first widely adopted steam engine.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThomas Newcomen died on 5 August 1729 at the London home of a fellow Baptist minister.
Source: en.wikipedia.org