#thomas savery

[lindahall]

Thomas Savery – Scientist of the Day

Thomas Savery was an English military engineer with a fondness for invention.  

read more...

[9to5buzzcom]

On Jul 2, 1698, Inventor Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine in England.

[degreeacademic]

6 Reasons Why People Like Thomas Savery | thomas savery

If you have ever watched The Godfather, you know that The Sopranos by HBO is the work of writer/producers/directors of the same name, and Thomas S. Avery is one of the co-creators. Avery was not born a writer; he did, however, have the same dreams as other writers. And it was these dreams that were realized, creating a new breed of writers, one that came to be known as “The Sopranos Creators”.

While he is credited as the “Sherlock” of The Sopranos, Thomas S. Avery actually began his writing career at a very early age: in the third grade. He wrote in both English and Spanish, and he made his first “hit” with a picture book, titled “I Know A Little Something About History”. This book has since sold over ten million copies. And the title should tell you something about what Avery's other books are like: “I Know A Little Something About You”, “I Know How To Speak Italian”, and “I Know How To Say 'I Love You' “.

However, the book that helped to launch Thomas S. Avery's writing career was a novel entitled, “I Do”. This was a book that, when it was published, was heralded as “the new Yiddish” for its story line, and in particular, the role that the “Shlomo Verenev” (from which the title derives) played in the story.

Although many people would view Thomas S. Avery as a “legendary author”, there are others who will argue that he is truly a true pioneer of modern literature. Many of his novels have been nominated for a National Book Award. And, not too surprisingly, one of the best-selling books he wrote was “The Sicario Trilogy: Blood Oranges”, which won the 1994 National Book Award. The book was adapted into a movie in the form of a movie, entitled “The Sopranos”, which was released in 2020.

While many writers were inspired by The Sopranos, none as much as Thomas S. Avery, because of the “carnival” spirit that the show portrays, and its portrayal of New York City. As with any type of entertainment, you need to feel as if you are at the club in order to appreciate it, and this is what the creators of The Sopranos sought to achieve.

And, for all of Thomas S. Avery's achievements as a writer, his life as a writer is not over yet. He is still as passionate about his craft as he was when he was still a teenager.

Thomas Newcomen – thomas savery | thomas savery

6- Thomas Savery created the first practical Sutori – thomas savery | thomas savery

Thomas Savery (c | thomas savery

Thomas Savery High Resolution Stock Photography and Images – Alamy – thomas savery | thomas savery

Thomas Savery Biography, Inventions and Facts – thomas savery | thomas savery

Thomas Savery – Wikipedia – thomas savery | thomas savery

The post 6 Reasons Why People Like Thomas Savery | thomas savery appeared first on Academic Degree.

from WordPress https://degreeneat.com/6-reasons-why-people-like-thomas-savery-thomas-savery/

[antonhowes]

Innovation vs Science

Matt Ridley has an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, to promote his upcoming book, The Evolution of Everything. I don’t think I’ve ever more strongly both agreed and disagreed with an article. There’s a lot to talk about here, so here’s just one of the many issues I’d like to bring up.

Ridley is right to question the widely assumed primacy of scientific research in driving technological progress. Indeed, it’s important to distinguish between science and innovation. For the purposes of my own research, I take scientists and natural philosophers (as they used to be known) as those seeking to advance our understanding of the world. Innovators, on the other hand, are those who seek to improve or at least design the world around them. The distinction is similar to that between social scientists and policymakers (although the latter probably design more than they improve). 

So in one sense Ridley is right. You don’t need to agree with Copernicus that the earth revolves around the sun in order to construct a decent sundial - you need merely observe the sun’s progress through the sky. The economic historian Joel Mokyr calls this “useful knowledge”. Observation can be sufficient for innovation, without necessarily understanding why things are the way they are.

However, individuals were sometimes both scientists and innovators, and many innovators incorporated the insights of scientists into their designs. Take steam engines, which Ridley cites as having benefited very little from thermodynamics. 

While the earliest steam engines didn’t require much understanding of thermodynamics, they benefited immensely from our growing understanding of vacuums. Denis Papin, the designer of the earliest piston-driving engine, had worked on vacuums with Huygens, Leibniz and Boyle. Many of the other early improvers of steam engines like Thomas Savery, Henry Beighton and John Theophilus Desaguliers were all involved with the Royal Society, the pre-eminent society of scientists in the country.

It was only later, when the efficiency of these engines needed to be improved, that thermodynamics became important. They were extraordinarily wasteful, with vast amounts of fuel expended on heating up and cooling down the same piston chamber. And we may not have developed much beyond the basic, mine-pumping, atmospheric-pressure steam engines, if James Watt hadn’t taken into account the theory of latent heat, developed by his friend and mentor Joseph Black.

When you find out that it takes a lot more energy to bring about a change in state, from liquid to gas, it makes sense to do the condensing in a separate chamber, while keeping the piston chamber warm. Hence, Watt’s separate condenser, pictured above. And Black didn’t glean this insight from observing steam engines, as far as I know, but from observing that snow didn’t melt instantaneously. Wikipedia informs me that Black’s discovery marks the beginning of thermodynamics.

So, Ridley is right to stress that innovation need not necessarily stem from science, but the impact of science on innovation should not be underestimated. Indeed, I strongly suspect that science plays an ever more important role in innovation. See nuclear power reactors, bio-engineering, many pharmaceuticals, and the development of new materials. However, this requires further research before saying for sure, and I’ll deal with some of his other points in later posts.

[british-history]

It was on this day in British history, 2 July 1698, that English inventor Thomas Savery patented an early type of steam engine. He proposed a practical use for the invention as a pump for removing water from mines. Though it possessed several glaring problems, Savery's early steam engine was integral to the development of the steam engine as a practical invention.