The English inventor and engineer Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) developed the first practical steam engine, an important feature of the industrial revolution. Thomas Newcomen was born on Feb. 24, 1663, at Dartmouth, Devonshire. It seems probable that as...

Thomas Newcomen was the first person to build an effective and economical steam engine. His engines were based primarily on the principles of the steam pumps of English military engineer Thomas Savery and French physicist Denis Papin. The improvements...

Fable or fame? Thomas Newcomen, like many inventors who preceded him in the steam revolution, has been clearly overshadowed in historical circles by the far more famous Scotsman, James Watt, who remains—incorrectly to some—known as the...

1663-1729 English Inventor Thomas Newcomen is often acclaimed as the inventor of the steam engine. An ironmonger by training, he converted Thomas Savery's primitive steam pump into a true, if inefficient, source of motive power. Originally...

1663-1729 English engineer who invented the first atmospheric steam engine. Newcomen was born in Dartmouth, and spent many years as an iron-monger there. Finding out that pumping water out of mines was at the time accomplished through a labor-intensive...

Thomas Newcomen (born 28 February 1663; died 5 August 1729) was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England, near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. Flooding was a major problem,...

1765 ALL the best inventions have a legendary "light bulb" moment. James Watt's is supposed to have been when he saw the lid of his kettle rattling. It was then, so the story goes, that he realised that steam pressure could be harnessed...

C. Stephen Lynn, president and chief executive officer of Sonic Corp., is the scheduled guest speaker when the Oklahoma Committee of The Newcomen Society of the United States holds it annual dinner meeting at the Petroleum Club at 6:30 p.m. today. Lynn is a...

Early LifeBorn in Scotland on January 19 1736, James was something of a prodigy, revealing himself to be a brilliant mathematician by age 13. He proved himself so talented that he was eventually sent to London to become a designer and manufacturer of maths instruments....