A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.

Steam engines are typically external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Water turns to steam in a boiler and reaches a high pressure. When expanded through pistons or turbines, mechanical work is done. The reduced-pressure steam is then cooled to condense it, and it is pumped back into the boiler.

The idea of using boiling water to produce mechanical motion has a long history, going back about 2,000 years. Early devices were not practical power producers, but more advanced designs producing usable power have become a major source of mechanical power over the last 300 years, beginning with applications for removing water from mines using vacuum engines. Subsequent developments using pressurized steam and converting linear to rotational motion enabled the powering of a wide range of manufacturing machinery. This could be sited anywhere that water and coal or wood fuel could be obtained, whereas previous installations were limited to locations where water wheels or windmills could be used. Significantly, this power source would later be applied to prime movers, mobile devices such as steam tractors and railway locomotives. The steam engine was a critical component of the Industrial Revolution, providing the power source to propel modern mass-production manufacturing methods. Modern steam turbines generate about 90% of the electric power in the United States using a variety of heat sources.

In general usage, the term 'steam engine' can refer to integrated steam plants such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine. Specialized devices such as steam hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on steam supplied from a separate boiler.

This DVD presents a library of nineteen {19} vintage books, covering the history, the workings and the inventors of these early mechanical devices.

Books Include:

:: A Descriptive History of the Steam Engine {1824}

:: A history of the growth of the steam-engine

:: A treatise on navigation by steam; comprising a history of the steam engine {1828}

:: Hints on steam-engine design and construction. With practical suggestions for the guidance of junior engineers and students {1901}

:: History of the Frick Company

:: Lives of Boulton and Watt, Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engine {1865}

:: Nathan Read his invention of the multi-tubular boiler and portable high-pressure engine {1870}

:: Robert Fulton, his life and its results {1891}

:: Steam and its uses - including the steam engine, the locomotive, and steam navigation {1873}

:: Steam and the steam engine - land, marine and locomotive {1873}

:: Steam engines; a thorough and practical presentation of modern steam engine practice {1917}

:: Steam-engine principles and practice {1922}

:: Steam-engine theory and practice {1922}

:: Stuart's Descriptive History of the Steam Engine {1831}

:: The steam engine - a practical guide to the construction, operation, and care of steam engines, steam turbines, and their accessories {1907}

:: The steam engine, its history and mechanism - being descriptions and illustrations of the stationary, locomotive, and marine engine {1854}

:: The steam-engine, being a popular description of the construction and action of that engine; with a sketch of its history, and of the laws of heat and pneumatics {1840}

:: The Theory of the Steam Engine {1839}

:: Treatise on the steam engine {1839}