nevertheless very successful. By the time Newcomen
died, in London, on August 5th 1729, there were at
least one hundred of his engines in Britain and across
Europe. They were used throughout the 18th century
and were still influential into the 20th century. One
engine at Pentich was still operating 127 years after
it was first installed. Perhaps the last Newcomen-
style engine to be used commercially - and the last
still remaining on its original site - is at Elsecar, near
Barnsley in South yorkshire.
Away from his inventions and foundry, little is known
of Newcomen’s personal life, but he came from a
family of devout Baptists. His father had been one of a
group who brought the well known Puritan, John Flavel,
to Dartmouth.
Newcomen was a lay preacher and a teaching elder
in the Baptist Church. That he continued in business is
Chance to make your fortune!
almost certainly because the Church could not afford There are no known images of Newcomen - and both
to pay him as a full time elder. Newcomen’s business
the Newcomen Society and the Institute of Civil Engi-
contacts in London included Edward Wallin, another
neers are desperate to get hold of one. Dr Robert Otter,
Baptist minister, and Dr John Gill of Southwark. His
chairman of the southern branch of the Newcomen
Society, and based in Portsmouth, said: “I’d love to be
connection with the Baptist church at Bromsgrove
able to share an image of Newcomen with you - but we
materially aided the spread of his steam engine through
don’t have one and there is no known picture of him.
the British canal network, as well as through the mines.
Even the Institute of Civil Engineers’ Library doesn’t have
But when he died, aged 66, Thomas Newcomen one. In fact very little is known about his personal life. If
was not a wealthy man. He received little credit for his
anyone could provide us with a picture of Newcomen it
invention, with most of the limelight falling on James
would literally be like gold dust - it could be a chance to
Watt who refined and promoted Newcomen’s idea. The
make your fortune!”
principle was used to create the Atmospheric Railway
where a train ran along lines, being propelled by the
pressure difference created in a tube connected to
steam engine houses along the route.
Newcomen’s work is still regarded as pioneering by
engineers the world over. The Newcomen Society is the
world’s oldest learned society devoted to the study of
the history of engineering and technology. The society
is based in London and is concerned with all branches
of engineering: civil, mechanical, electrical, structural,
aeronautical, marine, chemical and manufacturing.
Original research papers are given at regular evening
meetings held at the Science Museum in London. There
are also branches across Europe and in the united
States.
In Dartmouth, the Newcomen Engine House in
Mayors Avenue is preserved as a memorial to Thomas
Newcomen, charting the invention of his engine, his
involvement with the Atmospheric Steam Engine, and
his part in heralding the industrial revolution of the 18th
century. The Dartmouth engine was built at the end of
the 18th century and is a direct descendant of his first
engine, built in 1712. To find out more information, call
01803 834224.
Further reading: www.bbc.co.uk/history/
historicfigures/newcomenthomas;
www.newcomen.com
In print: L.T.C. Rolt, Thomas Newcomen (1963); H.W.
Dickinson, A Short History of the Steam Engine (1939).
39
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