Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen, (1663-1729). English engineer. In 1705 he patented a steam engine for pumping water out of mines, in which the actual pumping was done by atmospheric pressure rather than by the steam it-self. It could therefore pump over greater heights and the mines could be sunk deeper., The first commercially successful steam engine was installed near Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, in 1712. In due course Newcomen’s engine was superseded by one designed by Watt.
