High-pressure steam engine

What it is

A compact, condenser-free engine using steam at several atmospheres of pressure, which drastically reduced size and weight per horsepower. Without it, viable steam vehicles were impossible.

Oliver Evans developed high-pressure engines in parallel in Philadelphia (patent 1790, the 'Columbian' engine around 1801); both deserve independent credit for priority.

What it led to

• Self-propelled vehicles: the 'Puffing Devil' (1801) and the Penydarren locomotive (1804)
• High-pressure boilers and the early explosions that prompted regulation
• Portable engines for agriculture

Built on

• Separate-condenser steam engine1765-1769
• Oliver Evans's tubular boiler

Made possible

• Fusible plugc. 1803
• Steam locomotive1804
• Woolf's compound steam engine1804
• Steam shovel1835-1839
• Steam hammer1839 (patente 1842)
• Steam-powered airship1852
• Steam injector1858
• Babcock and Wilcox water-tube boiler1867
• Marine triple-expansion steam engine1874
• High-pressure steamship
• Agricultural steam engine

Links

Sources✓ verified 2026-09-25

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Trevithick