Newcomen’s Atmospheric Engine
Series
- Series Name
- Shell Cinemagazine
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 1 / 3
- Summary
- BFI Summary - one of the oldest steam engines in the world at work
Shell synopsis: The first feature is entitled ‘Newcomen’s Atmospheric Engine’. In 1705 Thomas Newcomen, a Devonshire ironmonger, designed his first practical steam engine. It was initially used for raising water for mine workers. Newcomen’s principles of a beam and piston that moves inside a cylinder became the basic design for subsequent engines.
Newcomen’s engines, with their open topped cylinders, reigned supreme for more than seventy years. They were used for pumping water from the coal and lead mines in the north of England and the tin and copper mines of the west. They were also employed in cities to supply water. More than two hundred years after Newcomen’s death in 1729, a few of his working engines still exist as a memorial to the pioneer of the mechanical steam engine. - Keywords
- Engineering; History and archaeology
- Written sources
- British Film Institute Databases Used for synopsis
Film User Vol.6 No.72, October 1952, p.514
Shell Visual Media Services Information Master Tape No.: U1525
- Credits:
-
- Director
- J. A. D. Cartwright
- Production Co.
- Shell Film Unit
This series is held by:
Film Archive
- Name
- British Film Institute (BFI)
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nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
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London W1T 1LN - Notes
- The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).
- Series held
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- Name
- Shell Film and Video Unit
- Filmservices@Shell.com
- Web
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- Address
- Creative Solutions
Shell Centre
London SE1 7NA - Series held
- View all series held by Shell Film and Video Unit
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