Steam Engine Explorer
Press play, slow it down, step through it, then flip to Newcomen’s engine.
Play
Run the engine
Press play and watch the steam go in, push, and get thrown out again. Slow it right down, step it a quarter-turn at a time, switch the labels off and test yourself, or flip to Newcomen’s older engine, where the air does the pushing.
The animation is our own simplified drawing, not to scale. How it works: Encyclopaedia Britannica: steam engine Encyclopaedia Britannica: steam engine Encyclopaedia Britannica: Thomas Newcomen