Steam Engine Library
Steam Engine Library
A collection of historical documents relating to the history of the steam engine.
Books on line
The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria from the original Greek, translated for and edited by Bennet Woodcroft. London, Taylor Walton and Maberly, 1851. 111 pages, about 50 illustrations. Written about AD300. First book describing a steam engine. [Peter Hark and Dan Sonneborn]
Account of Blasco de Garay's 1543 steamship.
Henry Dircks, The Life, Times and Scientific Labors of [Edward Somerset] the Second Marquis of Worcester, to which is added, a reprint of his Century of Inventions, 1663. London, 1865. 558 pp. The reprinted Century of Inventions and comments, about 220 pages, are the good bits of this. The rest can certainly be done, if anyone is interested in the English Civil War. [Fran Versace and Sean Singh]
Thomas Savery, The Miners Friend, or an Engine to Raise Water by Fire, London 1702. [Nicole Parson, Katrina Turner, Julian Woodard, Tesfa Myrie]
Mårten Triewald, Beskrifning om eld- och luftmachin vid Dannemora grufvor (A Short Description of the Fire- and Air- Machine at the Dannemora Mines.), Stockholm, 1734. English translation. Triewald worked in Britain before returning to build the first steam engine in Sweden. 60 pages, one illustration. Includes some biographical material. [Ben Haas, Nikhil Swadi, Michelle Staffa and Amanda Cantrell]
Thomas H. Marshall, James Watt (1736-1819), London, 1925. [Michael A. Goldberg, Ryan Tyler]
Robert Hart, Reminiscences of James Watt, Glasgow, 1859. Contributed by John W. Stephens.
John Lord, Capital and Steam Power 1750-1800 London, 1923. 242 pages. Good history of the economic aspects of the early steam engine. [Adam Kinne, Sam Gagliardi (4-6), Dari Sutton, Patrick Donavon (7, 8, concl)]
Francis B. Stevens, "The First Steam Screw Propellors to Navigate the Waters of any Country," The Stevens Indicator, 10 (April 1893), pp. 101-129. [Jack Tsai]
H.W. Dickinson, Robert Fulton: Engineer and Artist, his life and works. London, 1913. 327 pp including some pictures and tables. Parts are fairly technical. [Alex Schlessinger, Rob Wirstrom, Jon Martin, Brandon Yarbough, Jen Jones, Ben Whitestone]
Thompson Westcott, The Life of John Fitch, inventor of the steamboat Philadelphia, 1857. 415 pages, about 10 engravings. [James Goater (6-10), Grey Bossi (chap 11-14), Matt Poore (index, 2 graphics, chaps 1-5) , Matt Stoner (missing), Tim Dolgos (20.5-24), Eric Thurley (14-16)]
Oliver Evans, The Abortion of the Young Steam Engineer's Guide, 1805. 139 pages, tables and illustrations.
[Joseph Timmons, Nora Di Matteo, Ben Cichy, and Don Aviv]
Sadi Carnot, Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat and on Machines Fitted to Develop that Power, Translated by R.H. Thurston, New York, 1890. 260 pages, including 1 picture, tables, formulas, and supplementary material. Carnot's work was originally published in 1824 and, although long ignored, forms the scientific basis of modern thermodynamics. Very important book.
Dionysius Lardner, The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated; with an account of its invention and progressive improvement, and its application to Navigation and Railways; including also a Memoir of Watt. 7th edition, London, 1840. 522 pages, many illustrations. Written for a popular audience, but very complete. [Tanveer Rahman (Chapter 13,14); Fatima Rahmetullah (Appendix)]
Robert H. Thurston, A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine New York, 1878. 490 pages, 147 illustrations and 15 portraits. Thurston was a prominent engineer, and the book is well written. [Jacob Ben Efron, David Drahms]
Robert H. Thurston, Robert Fulton: his life and its results, New York, 1891. 192 pages, about 10-15 pictures. Thurston was himself a prominent steam engineer. [david leavitt, seth krostich, noah borenstein]
Andrew Carnegie, James Watt. New York, 1905. 241 pages. Carnegie was a very successful capitalist. [Siddarth Sharma, Rahul Baswan]
William H. Brown, The History of Locomotives in America, 1871, [Joseph James Scapelliti, Alexander Gershkovich and Michael Arko]
Sir Charles Parsons, The Steam Turbine, Cambridge, 1911. 57 pages, about 40 pictures and technical drawings. Parsons was largely responsible for the commercial success of the steam turbine. [Corey Smith]
Documents coming soon!
John Dee, The Mathematicall Præface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara. London, 1570. 60 pages, a few illustrations. Full of Latin and early English words - excellent short book, but not for the faint of heart. This work was instrumental in bringing both the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution to England, and thereby paving the way for development of the steam engine. [Jodie Lippman]
Rhys Jenkins, "Thomas Newcomen" [Anthony De Figlio]
Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, ed. [Early steam navigation], in Documentary History of the State of New-York, Vol 2:1011-1102. Albany, 1849. Includes: James Rumsey, A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam, whereby it is clearly shewn from actual experiments, that Steam may be applied to propel boats or vessels. (Philadelphia, 1788) and John Fitch, The Original Steam-Boat supported; or, a reply to Mr. James Rumsey's Pamphlet shewing the true priority of John Fitch, and the false datings, &c of James Rumsey. (Philadelphia, 1788). 92 pages, one small and one LARGE illustration. Very interesting pamphlets, includes letters from Washington and Franklin. [Erin Jones]
Samuel Smiles, Lives of Boulton and Watt, 2nd ed. 1866, 514 pages, about 80 illustrations. Watt was the inventor, and Boulton the entrepreneur. A classic work on early steam engine development. [Jennifer Hoffman, Amrita
Desai, David Hilton, Robert Koenig]
Francois Arago, Life of James Watt, in Arago's 1834 Biographies of Scientific Men, vol 2, pp 350-486. [David Jaffe]
Samuel Smiles, The Life of George Stephenson and of his son Robert Stephenson; comprising also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive. London, 1868. 533 pages. 90 illustrations. [Shanay Williams (1-100) (436-608), Naketa Strode (101-199), Rosan Dacres (200-299), Corey Legler]
Robert Stuart Meikleham, A Descriptive History of the Steam Engine, London, 1824. 228 pages. Microfilm - see below. [Orane Barrett (70-120), Daniel Hall (129-177), Allen Johnson (1-70)]
Dionysius Lardner, The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated; with an account of its invention and progressive improvement, and its application to Navigation and Railways; including also a Memoir of Watt. 7th edition, London, 1840. 522 pages, many illustrations. Written for a popular audience, but very complete. [1. Asif Shah Mohammed (Chapter 1 & 2)
2. Mohammad M. Syed (Chapter 3 & 4)
3. Kumanan Nesiah (Chapter 5,6 and Table of Contents)
4. Muniba Zulqarnian (Chapter 7, 8)
5. Tarini Arogyaswami (Chapter 9)
6. Shonar Majmudar (Chapter 10)
7. Ajay Singh Bika (Chaper 11)
8. Tanveer Rahman (Chapter 12, 13)
9. Fatima Rahmetullah (Chapter 14, Appendix)]
Wm. Barclay Parsons, Robert Fulton and the Submarine New York, 1922. 154 pages, about 20 pictures & drawings. [Sam Harris]
Holly Steam Pamphlet, 1878 [Yussef Abbasey]
Herman Haupt's Steam Report, 1879 [Kerstin Babbitt]
William Prall's 1880 pamphlet [Felix Asideu]
Baker's 1881 Pamphlet [Rahul Munjal]
Timby's 1889 pamphlet [Mike Lyons]
William Conant Church, The Life of John Ericsson, New York, 1890. 2 vols. 303 and 338 pages. Some illustrations and technical material. [vol 1 - Jonathan A. Herman, vol 2 - Joseph Vitali (on the way)]
Census Bureau, Central Electric Light and Power Stations 1902. Washington, 1905. 104 pages of text (including History and Development of Electric Lighting), 20 illustrations, plus 98 tables that may or may not be worthwhile to put on line. [Joel Helfrich]
Reginald Pelham Bolton, A Municipal Experiment, or the Hall of Records Power Plant New York, 1917. 221 pages, about 8 pictures, some tables. An excellent analysis comparing the use of small isolated steam power plants vs. large public utility plants in New York City. [David Van Duyne, Josh Pletka (1-80), Jose Abeid]
United States Fuel Administration, Fuel Facts, 1918, 59 pages. [David Urbanski, Michael DeGrande]
Morris Llewellyn Cooke, ed., "Giant Power: Large Scale Electrical Development as a Social Factor," Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, vol 128, March 1925. 177 pages, 10 illustrations, several tables. A series of articles promoting the social benefits of electrification on a massive scale. Very important work. [Andrew Gannick, Robert Ceglie, Alan Noscow.]
William S. Murray, Superpower: Its Genesis and Future, New York, 1925. 227 pages. [Matthew Guttin, Adam Glazer, Sanjit Timberwala]
Guy E. Tripp, Super Power as an Aid to Progress New York, 1924. 61 pages, about a dozen illustrations. [Justin Goldman, Dennis Annechino]
R. V. Reynolds, Fuel Wood Used in the United States 1630-1930 [Joanna Palacios, Cecily Strickland]
Samuell Insull, Central Station Electric Service: Its Commercial Development and Economic Significance as set forth in the Public Addresses (1897-1914) of Samuel Insull., Chicago, 1915. 475 pages, about 150 graphics. [Kevin Filipski, John Scahill, Valerie Plummer, Ryall Carroll]
Samuell Insull, Public Utilities in Modern Life: Selected Speeches (1914-1923) of Samuel Insull., Chicago, 1924. 403 pages [Terrence Kazlow, Shane Ortega (wednesday)]
Story of Electricity, 1919, [Mark Thrall (473-570), Dave Capucilli (339-438), Jack Huang (1-100?)]
Story of electricity, vol 2 [Robert Sawyer, Mike Shea, Dave Franks]
Ida Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Co., Vol 2. [Zachary Lutwick, Angelito Tan, Asheesh M. - not last chapters.]
Francis Trevithick, Life of Richard Trevithick. London, 1872. [Not owned by RRL. I have a photocopy.] 2 vols. 382 and 396 pages. Some illustrations. Trevithick was an early British pioneer of high pressure steam engines. [Susanne Grossman, Maria Cubillos (1:1-220), Chris Canery (1:221-320), Bernard Schmidt (1:321-382), Jose Quero (2:1-113), Michael Bowers (2:114-194), Ronald Rogers (2:195-283), Ray Glennon (2:284-396)]
Forty Years of Edison Service [St. Patrick Reid, Roger Soares]
Richard Margolis, The Bridge Project [James Schulman]
Barlett 1884 steam pamphlet [Scott Teitsch]
20 December 1996
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