User:EdJogg/Steam Portal/Sandbox

New section for Steam engine article...

Types and terminology

Reciprocating steam engines have been built in countless different sizes and configurations, according to their intended purpose. About the only common factor between them is that they use steam to move a piston in a cylinder. As a result, an array of terminology has developed to help classify the different types.

• Angle-compound – Two-cylinder compound engine where the cylinders are arranged in a vee (usually at a 90° angle) and drive a common crank.
• Atmospheric engine – see Newcomen engine
• Beam engine – description
• Bull engine – description
• Centre engine – purpose-designed mobile stationary engine comprising an engine mounted on a firetube boiler, located in the middle of a fairground ride, such as a gallopers set. Provides the power to drive the ride and associated fairground organ.
• Compound engine – multi-cylindered engine where high-pressure steam exhausted from a higher pressure cylinder is re-used in a separate, lower-pressure cylinder to maximise the energy extracted from the steam and hence improve efficiency
• Corliss engine – description
• Cornish engine – description
• Cross-compound – Two-cylinder compound engine where the cylinders are side-by-side and drive a common crank.
• Double-acting – description
• Horizontal engine – description
• Man engine – description
• Mill engine – description
• Over-type – generic type of steam wagon, where the engine is mounted above the boiler, traction engine-fashion.
• Newcomen engine – description
• Organ engine – small auxiliary engine fitted to a centre engine for driving a fairground organ.
• Portable engine – description
• Semi-portable engine – description
• Single-acting – description
• Stationary engine – description
• Steeple engine – description
• Table engine – description
• Tandem-compound – Two-cylinder compound engine where the cylinders are end-to-end, driving a common connecting rod.
• Triple-expansion engine – Multi-cylinder compound engine having three expansion stages (high-, mid- and low-pressure cylinders). May have more than three cylinders.
• Under-type – generic type of steam wagon, where the engine is mounted below the level of the boiler, the two usually being distinctly separate units. Also applied to some early traction engines.
• Winding engine – description
• Watt's engine – description
• Woolf compound – description