Newcomen Steam Festival-The Engine That Changed the World

About this event

Why is Thomas Newcomen’s 1712 steam engine regarded as one of the most important inventions in history? This talk explains how Newcomen and his assistant, John Calley, created the world’s first successful commercial steam engine, making deep coal mining possible and laying the foundations of the Industrial Revolution. Internationally recognised model engineer David Hulse, whose painstaking research into Newcomen’s engine spans decades in collaboration with the Newcomen Society, has constructed a remarkable 1/16-scale working model of the engine. Drawing on this research, David will explain how the engine operated, why its revolutionary design changed the course of engineering, and the ingenuity required to recreate one of history’s most significant machines in miniature. His collection of 8 working atmospheric steam engine models is on permanent display in the nearby Dartmouth Museum, where visitors can explore Newcomen’s pioneering achievement in greater depth. Speaker: David Hulse David Hulse is one of the pre-eminent model makers of our age, and his meticulously researched working models of eighteenth century atmospheric steam engines have gained international recognition.