An atmospheric steam engine built for Caprington Colliery, Ayshire, in 1811 to a design developed by Thomas Newcomen a century earlier. This was less efficient than James Watt's steam engine ...

Newcomen's engine operated on the same principle, but the vacuum was produced by a beam that moved similarly to a metronome.

Mark Miodownik shows a working model of a steam engine originally made the blacksmith Thomas Newcomen in 1712. These early steam engines produced a vacuum to generate power and were commonly used ...