Biography

Thomas Newcomen

Thomas Newcomen was born in Dartmouth on the 28th of February 1663. He was born into a middle-class family of eight, being one of six children, with three sisters and two brothers. His parents were Elias Newcomen and his first wife Sarah. Elias was a merchant and ship-owner. After his wife Sarah died, Elias remarried to a woman names Alice Trenhale. Alice and Elias raised Thomas and his five siblings.

In 1685, Thomas Newcomen began trade as a blacksmith in Dartmouth after serving as an apprentice at an ironmonger. In 1704, he restored the Town Clock in Dartmouth and there is documented proof of Newcomen acquiring up to 1000kg of Iron from assorted factories throughout the 1690s.

The idea of a steam engine came to Thomas Newcomen’s mind throughout the 1700s. This idea was due to all the deeply dug mines being flooded. There was an urgent need of a new method of removing the water from these mines. This led to Newcomen creating a machine that would drive a water pump to remove the water from the mines. He used the steam engine as a motive force. After the idea came to his mind, Thomas Newcomen experimented with a steam pump for more than ten years.

Thomas Newcomen died in London, UK on the 5th of August, 1729.