Why wasn’t the Steam Engine Invented in China? #History #Invention
The Chinese invented gunpowder, the compass, paper money, oil refining and many other amazing things, so why not a steam engine?
In a steam engine, the piston is moved using hot high-pressure steam, while a gun or cannon moves the projectile through the barrel using the hot gases produced when gunpowder is ignited. It may surprise you that the first engines made were in fact gunpowder driven and not gasoline or steam driven.
Why am I bringing up this point in a story about why China did not invent the steam engine? Because mastery of cannon making was very much a prerequisite technology for the development of the steam engine. One of the hardest problems James Watt faced when building his steam engine was to create a perfect cylinder. If the cylinder isn’t perfectly smooth and straight, you will get gas leakage and dramatically reduce the efficiency and practicality of the engine.
The key point is that a massive amount of study and experiments preceded the invention of the atmospheric and the steam engine. In other words, a key prerequisite for the Steam Engine was the European scientific revolution.
Read more via an article by Erik Engheim on Medium.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
