Woolf's compound steam engine
Máquina de vapor compound de Woolf
- Date
- 1804 · confidence medium
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Arthur Woolf (earlier idea by Jonathan Hornblower)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An engine with two cylinders in series in which steam first expands in a high-pressure cylinder and then in a low-pressure one, extracting more energy per unit of fuel. It pioneered multiple expansion.
Jonathan Hornblower patented a two-cylinder engine in 1781 that Watt opposed as infringing his condenser patent; Woolf's of 1804 used high-pressure steam and was the commercial success.
What it led to
- coal savings in Cornish engines
- triple-expansion marine engines
- higher thermal efficiency of steamships