View source for Timeline of heat engine technology

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This '''timeline of heat engine technology''' describes how [[heat engine]]s have been known since antiquity but have been made into increasingly useful devices since the 17th century as a better understanding of the processes involved was gained. A heat engine is any system that converts heat to [[mechanical energy]], which can then be used to do [[Work (physics)|mechanical work]].They continue to be developed today.

In [[engineering]] and [[thermodynamics]], a heat engine performs the conversion of [[heat]] [[energy]] to [[mechanical work]] by exploiting the [[temperature]] gradient between a hot "source" and a cold "[[heat sink|sink]]". Heat is [[heat transfer|transferred]] to the sink from the source, and in this process some of the heat is converted into [[energy|work]].

A [[heat pump]] is a heat engine run in reverse. Work is used to create a heat differential. The timeline includes devices classed as both engines and pumps, as well as identifying significant leaps in human understanding.

== Pre-17th century==
* Prehistory – The [[fire piston]] used by tribes in [[southeast Asia]] and the [[Pacific islands]] to kindle fire.
* c. 450 BC – [[Archytas|Archytas of Tarentum]] used a jet of steam to propel a toy wooden bird suspended on wire.<ref name="Hellemans">Hellemans, Alexander; et al. (1991). ""The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science"". New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1991.</ref>
* c. 50 AD – [[Hero of Alexandria]]'s Engine, also known as [[Aeolipile]]. Demonstrates rotary motion produced by the reaction from jets of steam.<ref>Hero (1851) [reprint of 1st century CE original], [http://himedo.net/TheHopkinThomasProject/TimeLine/Wales/Steam/URochesterCollection/Hero/section50.html "Section 50 – The Steam Engine"]. Translated from the original Greek by Bennet Woodcroft ''(Professor of Machinery in [[University College London]].''</ref>
* c. 10th century – China develops the earliest [[fire lance]]s which were spear-like weapons combining a bamboo tube containing [[gunpowder]] and shrapnel like projectiles tied to a spear.
* c 12th century – China, the earliest depiction of a [[History of the firearm|gun]] showing a metal body and a tight-fitting projectile which maximises the conversion of the hot gases to forward motion.<ref>[[Joseph Needham|Needham, Joseph]] (1986), ''Science & Civilisation in China'', V:7: ''The Gunpowder Epic'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-30358-3}}</ref>
* 1125 – Gerbert, a professor in the schools at Rheims designed and built an organ blown by air escaping from a vessel in which it was compressed by heated water.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url = https://archive.org/details/steamenginebein00reidgoog |title = 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.|last=Reid|first=Hugo|publisher=William Tait |year=1838|location=Edinburgh|page = [https://archive.org/details/steamenginebein00reidgoog/page/n92 74] }}</ref>
* 1232 – First recorded use of a [[rocket]].  In a battle between the Chinese and the Mongols. ( see [[Timeline of rocket and missile technology]] for a view of rocket development through time.)
* c. 1500 – [[Leonardo da Vinci]] builds the [[Architonnerre]], a steam-powered cannon.<ref>Thurston, Robert Henry (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=KCMUmXV1C1gC ''A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine''] (reprint ed.). Elibron. p. 12. {{ISBN|1-4021-6205-7}}.</ref>
* 1543 – Blasco de Garay, a Spanish naval officer demonstrates a boat propelled without oars or sail that utilised the reaction from a jet issued from a large boiling kettle of water.<ref name=":0" />
* 1551 – [[Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf|Taqi al-Din]] demonstrates a [[steam turbine]], used to rotate a [[Rotisserie|spit]].<ref name=Hassan>{{cite web |url = http://www.history-science-technology.com/Notes/Notes%201.htm |title = Taqi al-Din and the First Steam Turbine |access-date=2008-03-29 |last=Hassan |first=Ahmad Y |author-link=Ahmad Y Hassan |work=History of Science and Technology in Islam |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080218171045/http://www.history-science-technology.com/Notes/Notes%201.htm |archive-date = 2008-02-18 }}</ref>

== 17th century ==
* 1629 – [[Giovanni Branca]] demonstrates a [[steam turbine]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lardner |first=Dionysius |url=https://archive.org/details/steamengineexpl00lardgoog |title=The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated |publisher=Taylor and Walton |year=1840 |page=[https://archive.org/details/steamengineexpl00lardgoog/page/n46 22] |author-link=Dionysius Lardner}} Full title: ''Le Machine volume nuovo, et di molto artificio da fare effetti maravigliosi tanto Spiritali quanto di Animale Operatione, arichito di bellissime figure. Del Sig. Giovanni Branco, Cittadino Romano. In Roma, 1629''</ref>
* 1662 – [[Robert Boyle]] publishes [[Boyle's Law]] which defines the relationship between volume and pressure in a gas at a constant temperature.<ref>R. Boyle, ''A Defence of the Doctrine Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air'', … (London: Thomas Robinson, 1662). Available on-line at: Spain's La Biblioteca Virtual de Patrimonio Bibliográfico. Boyle presents his law in "Chap. V. Two new experiments touching the measure of the force of the spring of air compress'd and dilated.", pp. 57–68. On p. 59, Boyle concludes that " … the same air being brought to a degree of density about twice as that it had before, obtains a spring twice as strong as formerly." That is, doubling the density of a quantity of air doubles its pressure. Since air's density is proportional to its pressure, then for a fixed quantity of air, the product of its pressure and its volume is constant. On page 60, he presents his data on the compression of air: "A Table of the Condensation of the Air." The legend (p. 60) accompanying the table states: "E. What the pressure should be according to the ''Hypothesis'', that supposes the pressures and expansions to be in reciprocal relation." On p. 64, Boyle presents his data on the expansion of air: "A Table of the Rarefaction of the Air."https://bvpb.mcu.es/en/consulta/registro.cmd?id=406806</ref>
* 1665 – [[Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester|Edward Somerset]], the Second Marquess of Worcester builds a working steam fountain.<ref>The Century of Inventions, written in 1655; by Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. Being a verbatim reprint of the first edition, published in 1663. Archived 21 February 2006 at the [[Wayback Machine]] ''archive'' https://web.archive.org/web/20060221151830/http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/dircks/</ref> 
* 1680 – [[Christiaan Huygens]] publishes a design for a piston engine powered by [[gunpowder]] but it is never built.
* 1690 – [[Denis Papin]] – produces design for the first piston steam engine.
* 1698 – [[Thomas Savery]] builds a pistonless steam-powered water [[pump]] for pumping water out of mines.

== 18th century ==
* 1707 – [[Denis Papin]] – produces design for his second piston steam engine in conjunction with [[Gottfried Leibniz]].
* 1712 – [[Thomas Newcomen]] builds the first commercially successful [[Newcomen steam engine|piston-and-cylinder steam-powered water pump]] for pumping water out of mines. It is known as an [[atmospheric engine]] and operates by condensing steam in a cylinder to produce a vacuum which moves the piston by atmospheric pressure.
* 1748 – [[William Cullen]] demonstrates the first artificial [[refrigeration]] in a public lecture at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
* 1759 – [[John Harrison]] uses a [[bimetallic strip]] in his third marine chronometer (H3) to compensate for temperature-induced changes in the balance spring. This converts thermal expansion and contraction in two dissimilar solids to mechanical work.
* 1769 – [[James Watt]] patents his first improved atmospheric steam engine, see [[Watt steam engine]] with a separate condenser outside the cylinder, doubling the efficiency of earlier engines.
* 1787 – [[Jacques Charles]] formulates [[Charles's law]] which describes the relationship between a gas's volume and temperature. He does not publish this however and it is not recognised until [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]] develops and references it in 1802.
* 1791 – [[John Barber (engineer)|John Barber]] patents the idea of a [[gas turbine]].
* 1799 – [[Richard Trevithick]] builds the first high pressure steam engine. This used the force from pressurized steam to move the piston.

== 19th century ==
* 1802 – [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]] develops [[Gay-Lussac's law]] which describes the relationship between a gas's pressure and temperature.
* 1807 – [[Nicéphore Niépce]] installed his 'moss, coal-dust and resin' fuelled [[Pyréolophore]] internal combustion engine in a boat and powered up the river [[Saone]] in France.
* 1807 – Franco/Swiss engineer [[François Isaac de Rivaz]] built the [[De Rivaz engine]], powered by the internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen mixture and used it to power a wheeled vehicle.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm?rd=1 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20120711004103/http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm?rd=1 |url-status = dead |archive-date = July 11, 2012 |title=The History of the Automobile – Gas Engines |website = About.com |date=2009-09-11 |access-date=2009-10-19 }}</ref>
* 1816 – [[Robert Stirling]] invented [[Stirling engine]], a type of [[hot air engine]].
* 1824 – [[Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot]] developed the [[Carnot cycle]] and the associated hypothetical [[Carnot heat engine]] that is the basic theoretical model for all [[heat engine]]s. This gives the first early insight into the [[second law of thermodynamics]].
* 1834 – [[Jacob Perkins]], obtained the first patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system.
* 1850s – [[Rudolf Clausius]] sets out the concept of the [[thermodynamic system]] and positioned [[entropy]] as being that in any irreversible process a small amount of heat energy δQ is incrementally dissipated across the system boundary
* 1859 – [[Etienne Lenoir]] developed the first commercially successful [[internal combustion engine]], a single-cylinder, two-stroke engine with electric ignition of [[gas lighting|illumination gas]] (not gasoline).
* 1861 – [[Alphonse Beau de Rochas]] of France originates the concept of the four-stroke internal-combustion engine by emphasizing the previously unappreciated importance of compressing the fuel–air mixture before ignition.
* 1861 – [[Nicolaus Otto]] patents a two-stroke internal combustion engine building on Lenoir's.
* 1867 – [[James Clerk Maxwell]] postulated the [[thought experiment]] that later became known as [[Maxwell's demon]]. This appeared to violate the [[second law of thermodynamics]] and was the beginning of the idea that information was part of the physics of heat.
* 1872 – [[Pulsometer steam pump]], a pistonless pump, patented by Charles Henry Hall. It was inspired by the Savery steam pump.
* 1873 – The British chemist Sir [[William Crookes]] invents the [[light mill]] a device which turns the radiant heat of light directly into rotary motion.
* 1877 – Theorist [[Ludwig Boltzmann]] visualized a probabilistic way to measure the entropy of an ensemble of ideal gas particles, in which he defined entropy to be proportional to the logarithm of the number of microstates such a gas could occupy.
* 1877 – [[Nicolaus Otto]] patents a practical four-stroke internal combustion engine ({{US patent|194047}})
* 1883 – [[Samuel Griffin]] of Bath UK patents a [[Six-stroke engine|six-stroke internal combustion engine]].<ref>[http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensegb/griffin2.htm The Griffin Engineering Company, of Bath, Somerset] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513071644/http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensegb/griffin2.htm |date=2007-05-13 }} University Of Bath, 15 December 2004. Accessed May 2011</ref>
* 1884 – [[Charles A. Parsons]] builds the first modern [[Steam turbine]].
* 1886 – [[Herbert Akroyd Stuart]] builds the prototype [[Hot bulb engine]], an oil fueled [[Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition]] engine similar to the later diesel but with a lower [[compression ratio]] and running on a fuel air mixture.
* 1887 – [[John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh|Lord Rayleigh]] discussed the theoretical possibility of a [[thermoacoustic heat engine]] that could turn a temperature difference directly into mechanical movement using only sound waves. The [[Rijke tube]] had already demonstrated this in 1859.
* 1892 – [[Rudolf Diesel]] patents the [[Diesel engine]] ({{US patent|608845}}) where a high compression ratio generates hot gas which then ignites an [[fuel injection|injected fuel]]. After five years of experimenting and assistance from MAN company, he builds a working diesel engine in 1897.

== 20th century ==
* Approx 1910 an unknown inventor produces the toy <nowiki>''</nowiki>[[Drinking bird]]<nowiki>''</nowiki>, a toy bird that oscillates continuously on a pivot powered by the evaporation and condensation of a volatile liquid. A wet end and a dry end of the toy produce a slight temperature difference through the evaporation of water.
* 1909, the Dutch physicist [[Heike Kamerlingh Onnes]] develops the concept of [[enthalpy]] for the measure of the "useful" work that can be obtained from a closed thermodynamic system at a constant pressure.
* 1913 – [[Nikola Tesla]] patents the [[Tesla turbine]] based on the [[Boundary layer]] effect.
* 1926 – [[Robert Goddard]] of the US launches the first [[liquid-propellant rocket|liquid-fuel rocket]].
* 1929 – [[Felix Wankel]] patents the [[Wankel engine|Wankel rotary engine]] ({{US patent|2988008}})
* 1929 – &nbsp;[[Leó Szilárd]], in a refinement of the famous&nbsp;[[Maxwell's demon]]&nbsp;scenario conceives of a heat engine that can run on information alone, known as the [[Szilard engine]]. 
* 1930 – Sir [[Frank Whittle]] in England patents the first design for a gas turbine for [[Jet engine|jet propulsion]]. 
* 1933 – French physicist [[Georges J. Ranque]] invents the [[Vortex tube]], a fluid flow device without moving parts, that can separate a compressed gas into hot and cold streams.
* 1935 – [[Ralph H. Fowler]] invents the title '[[Zeroth law of thermodynamics|the zeroth law of thermodynamics]]' to summarise postulates made by earlier physicists that thermal equilibrium between systems is a [[transitive relation]].
* 1937 – [[Hans von Ohain]] builds a [[gas turbine]]
* 1940 – Hungarian [[Bela Karlovitz]] working for the Westinghouse company in the US files the first patent for a [[MHD generator|magnetohydrodynamic generator]], which can generate electricity directly from a hot moving gas
* 1942 – R.S. Gaugler of General Motors patents the idea of the [[Heat pipe]], a heat transfer mechanism that combines the principles of both thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces.
* 1950s – The [[Philips]] company develop the Stirling-cycle [[Stirling Cryocooler]] which converts mechanical energy to a temperature difference.
* 1957 – the first demonstration of a practical arc-mode caesium vapor [[thermionic converter]] by V. Wilson. Electrons from a hot cathode act as a working fluid which condenses on a cold anode and produces an electric current. Several applications of it were demonstrated in the following decade, including its use with [[Solar power|solar]], [[combustion]], [[radioisotope]], and [[nuclear reactor]] heat sources.<ref>Rasor, N. S. (1983). "Thermionic Energy Converter". In Chang, Sheldon S. L. (ed.). ''Fundamentals Handbook of Electrical and Computer Engineering''. Vol. II. New York: Wiley. p. 668. {{ISBN|0-471-86213-4}}.</ref>
* 1959 – &nbsp;Geusic, Schultz-DuBois and Scoville of Bell Telephone Laboratories USA build a [[Population inversion#Three-level lasers|Three Level Maser]] which runs as a [[Quantum heat engines and refrigerators|quantum heat engine]] extracting work from the temperature difference of two heat pools.
* 1962 – William J. Buehler and Frederick Wang discover the Nickel titanium alloy known as [[Nitinol]] which has a shape memory dependent on its temperature.
* 1962 – Nikolaus Rott reopened the topic.of [[Thermoacoustic heat engine|thermoacoustic engines]] described by Lord Rayleigh in 1887 and produced a full theoretical analysis which led to technological development and a working device carried on the Space Shuttle in 1992.
* 1992 – The first practical [[MHD generator|magnetohydrodynamic generators]] are built in Serbia and the USA.
* 1996 – The [[Quasiturbine]] engine patented. A [[pistonless rotary engine]] using a [[rhomboid]]al rotor whose sides are hinged at the vertices. Similar to the [[Wankel engine]], but the hinging at the edges allows increased volume ratio.

== 21st century==
* 2011 – Shoichi Toyabe and others demonstrate a working [[Szilard engine]] using a [[Phase-contrast microscopy|phase-contrast microscope]] equipped with a [[High-speed camera|high speed camera]] connected to a computer.<ref>Shoichi Toyabe; Takahiro Sagawa; Masahito Ueda; Eiro Muneyuki; Masaki Sano (2010-09-29). "Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control". Nature Physics. 6 (12): 988–992. {{arxiv|1009.5287}}. {{Bibcode|2011NatPh...6..988T}}. {{doi|10.1038/nphys1821}}. We demonstrated that free energy is obtained by a feedback control using the information about the system; information is converted to free energy, as the first realization of Szilard-type Maxwell’s demon.</ref>
* 2011 – Michigan State University builds the first [[wave disk engine]]. An internal combustion engine which does away with pistons, crankshafts and valves, and replaces them with a disc-shaped shock wave generator.<ref>[http://arpa-e.energy.gov/ProgramsProjects/OtherProjects/VehicleTechnologies/WaveDiskEngine.aspx Michigan State University: Wave Disk Engine] U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency, March 2011</ref>
* 2019 – A working quantum heat engine based on a spin-1/2 system and [[nuclear magnetic resonance]] techniques is demonstrated by Roberto Serra and others at the [[University of Waterloo|Universities of Waterloo]], and the [[Federal University of ABC|Universidade Federal do ABC and Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://phys.org/news/2019-12-experimental-quantum.html|title=The experimental demonstration of a spin quantum heat engine|website=phys.org|language=en-us|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref>
* 2020 – A [[nanotechnology|nano]] scale device that can act either as a heat engine or as a refrigerator by utilising quantum effects, is demonstrated by engineers at [[Riken|RIKEN]] Advanced Device Laboratory.<ref>{{Cite web|title=New quantum nanodevice can simultaneously act as a heat engine and a refrigerator|url=https://phys.org/news/2020-12-quantum-nanodevice-simultaneously-refrigerator.html|access-date=2020-12-29|website=phys.org|language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==
Related timelines:
* [[Timeline of rocket and missile technology]] – Rockets can be considered to be heat engines. The heat of their exhaust gases is converted into mechanical energy.
* [[History of thermodynamics]]
* [[History of the internal combustion engine]]
* [[Timeline of motor and engine technology]]
* [[Timeline of steam power]]
* [[Timeline of temperature and pressure measurement technology]]

For a timeline of all human technology see:
* [[Timeline of historic inventions]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19970629015211/http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/ ''The Growth Of The Steam-Engine'' Robert H. Thurston, A. M., C. E., New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1878.]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=OjN7GkIDk4UC&dq=Fran%C3%A7ois+Isaac+de+Rivaz&pg=PA40 Thermal Engineering in Power Systems]  By Ryoichi Amano, Bengt Sundén, Page 40, chapter 'Brief History of energy conversion'. Volume 22 of Developments in Heat Transfer Series, International series on developments in heat transfer, v. 22, WIT Press, 2008. {{ISBN|1-84564-062-4}}; {{ISBN|978-1-84564-062-0}}.
{{refend}}

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[[Category:Technology timelines|Heat engine technology]]
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