Timeline of heat engine technology

This timeline of heat engine technology describes how <a href="/facts/Heat_engine/t1gq4r5d">heat engines</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Mechanical_energy/gI4oMzoY">mechanical energy</a>, which can then be used to do <a href="/facts/Work_(physics)/mbclFPBs">mechanical work</a>.They continue to be developed today.
In <a href="/facts/Engineering/RFVg8H3I">engineering</a> and <a href="/facts/Thermodynamics/q4hIx3yP">thermodynamics</a>, a heat engine performs the conversion of <a href="/facts/Heat/FjDGssCs">heat</a> <a href="/facts/Energy/wd8PrQM7">energy</a> to <a href="/facts/Mechanical_work/mbclFPBs">mechanical work</a> by exploiting the <a href="/facts/Temperature/QyGe4gmj">temperature</a> gradient between a hot "source" and a cold "<a href="/facts/Heat_sink/ccIEdHnq">sink</a>". Heat is <a href="/facts/Heat_transfer/1IV3WbFL">transferred</a> to the sink from the source, and in this process some of the heat is converted into <a href="/facts/Energy/wd8PrQM7">work</a>.
A <a href="/facts/Heat_pump/JAprSmeL">heat pump</a> 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.

Timeline of heat engine technology open-in-new

Timeline of heat engine technology