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I looked in Part 1 and 2 and didn't see this point raised, which is a shame because it's one of my favorite stories of intertwined technological process. An en

by cletus 4y ago

I looked in Part 1 and 2 and didn't see this point raised, which is a shame because it's one of my favorite stories of intertwined technological process. An engine requires piston that move within a bore. To create the pressure that process has to be precise. This process was perfected in making cannons. Why I like this story is that it embodies the unintended consequences that underlies so much of progress, like Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone while trying to create something for the deaf. You see this with research now that's plagued with being goal-oriented. "What will you discover/prove/invent in the next 5-10 years?" Who can say? Also, the steam engine and the internal combustion engine are directly the products of technology created for war to kill people.

cfmcdonald 4y ago
Actually a Savery engine (the type of engine the OP's post starts off with) doesn't have a piston at all. And the Newcomen atmospheric engine didn't require a very precise fit to function either. It wasn't until Watt started the drive for more efficient engines that accurately boring the cylinder became important.
- antonhowes 4y ago
  Exactly! Part III or IV will end up talking about boring techniques of the 1650s (long before the famous John Wilkinson methods), but that is precisely the thing with Savery engines - and indeed with Newcomen engines, which worked with pistons long before Wilkinson too!
RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
> An engine requires piston that move within a bore. To create the pressure that process has to be precise. This process was perfected in making cannons. There is speculation that the techniques for casting these cannons, was actually perfected in making church bells. Basically, if you turn a church bell on its side you have a primitive cannon. This may be one of the reasons that Europe was able to harness gunpowder more effectively and climb to dominance.

by cletus 4y ago

cfmcdonald 4y ago

Actually a Savery engine (the type of engine the OP's post starts off with) doesn't have a piston at all. And the Newcomen atmospheric engine didn't require a very precise fit to function either. It wasn't until Watt started the drive for more efficient engines that accurately boring the cylinder became important.

antonhowes 4y ago
Exactly! Part III or IV will end up talking about boring techniques of the 1650s (long before the famous John Wilkinson methods), but that is precisely the thing with Savery engines - and indeed with Newcomen engines, which worked with pistons long before Wilkinson too!

RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago

> An engine requires piston that move within a bore. To create the pressure that process has to be precise. This process was perfected in making cannons. There is speculation that the techniques for casting these cannons, was actually perfected in making church bells. Basically, if you turn a church bell on its side you have a primitive cannon. This may be one of the reasons that Europe was able to harness gunpowder more effectively and climb to dominance.