Marine triple-expansion steam engine
Máquina de vapor de triple expansión naval
- Date
- 1874 · confidence high
- Place
- Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Alexander C. Kirk
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
An engine that expands steam successively in three cylinders of decreasing pressure, extracting more energy and halving coal consumption. It allowed cargo steamers to cross oceans profitably.
Credited to Kirk in the SS Propontis (1874), though commercial success came with the SS Aberdeen (1881); earlier three-cylinder experiments existed.
What it led to
- long-distance merchant steam fleets
- less coal weight in the hold and more payload
- opening of wool and meat routes