Lap Engine: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:00, 12 March 2015

Revision as of 22:28, 12 March 2015

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|alt =

|caption =

|type = [[Watt steam engine|Watt]], [[rotative beam engine|rotative beam]]

|designer = [[James Watt]]

|maker = [[Boulton and Watt]]

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The '''''Lap Engine''''' is an early [[beam engine]] of 1788, built by [[James Watt]]. It is now preserved at the [[Science Museum, London]].

It is important as both an early example of a beam engine by [[Boulton and Watt]], and also mainly as illustrating an important innovative step in their development for its ability to produce rotary motion.<ref name="Dickinson & Jenkins, 1927" /><ref name="Crowley, Lap Engine" />

== Innovations ==

Watt did not invent the steam engine and there is no single '[[Watt steam engine]]' as such. He developed a number of separate innovations, each of which improved the existing engines of the day, beginning with [[Newcomen atmospheric engine|Newcomen's]]. The ''Lap Engine'' of 1788, also the [[Boulton and Watt steam engine (Powerhouse Museum)|Whitbread Brewery engine]] (1785), represent survivors of the first engines to show all of Watt's major improvements in one.<ref name="Crowley, Lap Engine" />

=== Parallel motion ===

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[[File:Sun and planet gear science museum.JPG|thumb|]]

{{More|Sun and planet gear}}

isIs a method of converting [[reciprocating motion]] to [[rotary motion]] and was used in the first [[rotative beam engine]]s.

The [[crankshaft]] was well known for centuries before Watt, mostly from its use in mining machinery powered by [[water wheel]]s. However its use for a steam engine was covered by [[James Pickard]]'s patent at this time..<ref >{{Cite book

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{{Steam engine configurations}}

{{engineering-stub}}

[[Category:Preserved beam engines]]

[[Category:James Watt]]

[[Category:Steam engines in the Science Museum, London]]

{{engineering-stub}}