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125-590: An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells . The first ironclad battleship, Gloire , was launched by the French Navy in November 1859, narrowly preempting the British Royal Navy . However, Britain built

250-473: A breech, adopted by the French in 1873. Just as compellingly, the growing size of naval guns and consequently, their ammunition, made muzzle-loading much more complicated. With guns of such size there was no prospect of hauling in the gun for reloading, or even reloading by hand, and complicated hydraulic systems were required for reloading the gun outside the turret without exposing the crew to enemy fire. In 1882,

375-492: A claim to the title of the first ironclad warships but they were capable of only 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) under their own power: they operated under their own power at the Battle of Kinburn, but had to be towed for long-range transit. They were also arguably marginal to the work of the navy. The brief success of the floating ironclad batteries convinced France to begin work on armored warships for their battlefleet. By

500-497: A closed space (e.g., combustion chamber , firebox , furnace). In the case of model or toy steam engines and a few full scale cases, the heat source can be an electric heating element . Boilers are pressure vessels that contain water to be boiled, and features that transfer the heat to the water as effectively as possible. The two most common types are: Fire-tube boilers were the main type used for early high-pressure steam (typical steam locomotive practice), but they were to

625-407: A collision with HMS  Brunswick . Three-deckers used 36-pounders on their lower decks and 24-pounders on their second deck. Until 1803, the third deck was equipped with 12-pounder guns, as a heavier gun would have destabilised the ship; after this date, however, Sané introduced design improvements that allowed installation of 18-pounders on the third deck of Impérial ; later 120-gun ships of

750-423: A common four-way rotary valve connected directly to a steam boiler. The next major step occurred when James Watt developed (1763–1775) an improved version of Newcomen's engine, with a separate condenser . Boulton and Watt 's early engines used half as much coal as John Smeaton 's improved version of Newcomen's. Newcomen's and Watt's early engines were "atmospheric". They were powered by air pressure pushing

875-457: A conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), regardless of the wind conditions: a potentially decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of the steam ship-of-the-line led to a building competition between France and Britain. Eight sister ships to Napoléon were built in France over a period of ten years, but

1000-415: A few other uses recorded in the 16th century. In 1606 Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont patented his invention of the first steam-powered water pump for draining mines. Thomas Savery is considered the inventor of the first commercially used steam powered device, a steam pump that used steam pressure operating directly on the water. The first commercially successful engine that could transmit continuous power to

1125-568: A few rounds. Smoke and the general chaos of battle only added to the problem. As a result, many naval engagements in the 'Age of the Ironclad' were still fought at ranges within easy eyesight of their targets, and well below the maximum reach of their ships' guns. Another method of increasing firepower was to vary the projectile fired or the nature of the propellant. Early ironclads used black powder , which expanded rapidly after combustion; this meant cannons had relatively short barrels, to prevent

1250-438: A flywheel and crankshaft to provide rotative motion from an improved Newcomen engine. In 1720, Jacob Leupold described a two-cylinder high-pressure steam engine. The invention was published in his major work "Theatri Machinarum Hydraulicarum". The engine used two heavy pistons to provide motion to a water pump. Each piston was raised by the steam pressure and returned to its original position by gravity. The two pistons shared

1375-423: A given cylinder size than previous engines and could be made small enough for transport applications. Thereafter, technological developments and improvements in manufacturing techniques (partly brought about by the adoption of the steam engine as a power source) resulted in the design of more efficient engines that could be smaller, faster, or more powerful, depending on the intended application. The Cornish engine

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1500-416: A large extent displaced by more economical water tube boilers in the late 19th century for marine propulsion and large stationary applications. Many boilers raise the temperature of the steam after it has left that part of the boiler where it is in contact with the water. Known as superheating it turns ' wet steam ' into ' superheated steam '. It avoids the steam condensing in the engine cylinders, and gives

1625-508: A machine was developed in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen . James Watt made a critical improvement in 1764, by removing spent steam to a separate vessel for condensation, greatly improving the amount of work obtained per unit of fuel consumed. By the 19th century, stationary steam engines powered the factories of the Industrial Revolution . Steam engines replaced sails for ships on paddle steamers , and steam locomotives operated on

1750-423: A movement away from the ships mounting many guns broadside, in the manner of a ship-of-the-line, towards a handful of guns in turrets for all-round fire. From the 1860s to the 1880s many naval designers believed that the ram was again a vital weapon in naval warfare. With steam power freeing ships from the wind, iron construction increasing their structural strength, and armor making them invulnerable to shellfire,

1875-409: A partial vacuum by condensing steam under a piston within a cylinder. It was employed for draining mine workings at depths originally impractical using traditional means, and for providing reusable water for driving waterwheels at factories sited away from a suitable "head". Water that passed over the wheel was pumped up into a storage reservoir above the wheel. In 1780 James Pickard patented the use of

2000-405: A piston into the partial vacuum generated by condensing steam, instead of the pressure of expanding steam. The engine cylinders had to be large because the only usable force acting on them was atmospheric pressure . Watt developed his engine further, modifying it to provide a rotary motion suitable for driving machinery. This enabled factories to be sited away from rivers, and accelerated

2125-433: A set speed, because it would assume a new constant speed in response to load changes. The governor was able to handle smaller variations such as those caused by fluctuating heat load to the boiler. Also, there was a tendency for oscillation whenever there was a speed change. As a consequence, engines equipped only with this governor were not suitable for operations requiring constant speed, such as cotton spinning. The governor

2250-522: A significantly higher efficiency . In a steam engine, a piston or steam turbine or any other similar device for doing mechanical work takes a supply of steam at high pressure and temperature and gives out a supply of steam at lower pressure and temperature, using as much of the difference in steam energy as possible to do mechanical work. These "motor units" are often called 'steam engines' in their own right. Engines using compressed air or other gases differ from steam engines only in details that depend on

2375-497: A small number of powerful guns capable of penetrating the armor of enemy ships at range; calibre and weight of guns increased markedly to achieve greater penetration. Throughout the ironclad era navies also grappled with the complexities of rifled versus smoothbore guns and breech-loading versus muzzle-loading . HMS  Warrior carried a mixture of 110-pounder 7-inch (178 mm) breech-loading rifles and more traditional 68-pounder smoothbore guns. Warrior highlighted

2500-414: A steam jet usually supplied from the boiler. Injectors became popular in the 1850s but are no longer widely used, except in applications such as steam locomotives. It is the pressurization of the water that circulates through the steam boiler that allows the water to be raised to temperatures well above 100 °C (212 °F) boiling point of water at one atmospheric pressure, and by that means to increase

2625-628: A steam rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the United States probably during the 1780s or 1790s. His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in the United Kingdom and, on 21 February 1804, the world's first railway journey took place as Trevithick's steam locomotive hauled 10 tones of iron, 70 passengers and five wagons along

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2750-612: A trio of locomotives, concluding with the Catch Me Who Can in 1808. Only four years later, the successful twin-cylinder locomotive Salamanca by Matthew Murray was used by the edge railed rack and pinion Middleton Railway . In 1825 George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway . This was the first public steam railway in the world and then in 1829, he built The Rocket which

2875-561: A very limited lift height and were prone to boiler explosions . Savery's engine was used in mines, pumping stations and supplying water to water wheels powering textile machinery. One advantage of Savery's engine was its low cost. Bento de Moura Portugal introduced an improvement of Savery's construction "to render it capable of working itself", as described by John Smeaton in the Philosophical Transactions published in 1751. It continued to be manufactured until

3000-473: A water pump for draining inundated mines. Frenchman Denis Papin did some useful work on the steam digester in 1679, and first used a piston to raise weights in 1690. The first commercial steam-powered device was a water pump, developed in 1698 by Thomas Savery . It used condensing steam to create a vacuum which raised water from below and then used steam pressure to raise it higher. Small engines were effective though larger models were problematic. They had

3125-508: A wooden hull. Encouraged by the positive reports of the iron hulls of those ships in combat, the Admiralty ordered a series of experiments to evaluate what happened when thin iron hulls were struck by projectiles, both solid shot and hollow shells, beginning in 1845 and lasting through 1851. Critics like Lieutenant-general Sir Howard Douglas believed that the splinters from the hull were even more dangerous than those from wooden hulls and

3250-474: Is called the Rankine cycle . In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants (including boilers etc.), such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines , or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine . As noted, steam-driven devices such as the aeolipile were known in the first century AD, and there were

3375-431: Is cylinder condensation and re-evaporation. The steam cylinder and adjacent metal parts/ports operate at a temperature about halfway between the steam admission saturation temperature and the saturation temperature corresponding to the exhaust pressure. As high-pressure steam is admitted into the working cylinder, much of the high-temperature steam is condensed as water droplets onto the metal surfaces, significantly reducing

3500-413: Is most commonly applied to reciprocating engines as just described, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as "steam engines". The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines , where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process

3625-399: Is then pumped back up to pressure and sent back to the boiler. A dry-type cooling tower is similar to an automobile radiator and is used in locations where water is costly. Waste heat can also be ejected by evaporative (wet) cooling towers, which use a secondary external water circuit that evaporates some of flow to the air. River boats initially used a jet condenser in which cold water from

3750-542: Is vented up the chimney so as to increase the draw on the fire, which greatly increases engine power, but reduces efficiency. Sometimes the waste heat from the engine is useful itself, and in those cases, very high overall efficiency can be obtained. Steam engines in stationary power plants use surface condensers as a cold sink. The condensers are cooled by water flow from oceans, rivers, lakes, and often by cooling towers which evaporate water to provide cooling energy removal. The resulting condensed hot water ( condensate ),

3875-478: The Battle of Sinop , spelled the end of the wooden-hulled warship. The more practical threat to wooden ships was from conventional cannon firing red-hot shot, which could lodge in the hull and cause a fire or ammunition explosion. Some navies even experimented with hollow shot filled with molten metal for extra incendiary power. The use of wrought iron instead of wood as the primary material of ships' hulls began in

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4000-583: The Gloire and her sisters had full iron-armor protection along the waterline and the battery itself. The British Warrior and Black Prince (but also the smaller Defence and Resistance ) were obliged to concentrate their armor in a central "citadel" or "armoured box", leaving many main deck guns and the fore and aft sections of the vessel unprotected. The use of iron in the construction of Warrior also came with some drawbacks; iron hulls required more regular and intensive repairs than wooden hulls, and iron

4125-468: The Rumford Medal , the committee said that "no one invention since Watt's time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam engine". In addition to using 30% less steam, it provided more uniform speed due to variable steam cut off, making it well suited to manufacturing, especially cotton spinning. The first experimental road-going steam-powered vehicles were built in the late 18th century, but it

4250-416: The armor-piercing shell was developed. Steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid . The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder . This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine"

4375-547: The forecastle . Around 130 of these frigates were built. At the end of the First French Empire , 24-pounder frigates began supplanting the 18-pounder frigates. Frigates built after the Bourbon Restoration used a different artillery system, one involving 30-pounders. On two-deckers, the 18-pounder was mounted on the upper deck as secondary artillery, to complement the 36-pounder main artillery on

4500-516: The screw propeller in the 1840s. Steam-powered screw frigates were built in the mid-1840s, and at the end of the decade the French Navy introduced steam power to its line of battle . Napoleon III 's ambition to gain greater influence in Europe required a sustained challenge to the British at sea. The first purpose-built steam battleship was the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850. Napoléon was armed as

4625-626: The tramway from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon in south Wales . The design incorporated a number of important innovations that included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine and increased its efficiency. Trevithick visited the Newcastle area later in 1804 and the colliery railways in north-east England became the leading centre for experimentation and development of steam locomotives. Trevithick continued his own experiments using

4750-480: The 18-pounder on frigates, which carried 28 guns. Fourth-rate ships carried 26 on their secondary batteries, and third rates carried 28. Unlike the French, the British used second rates , of 90 to 98 guns; the 90-gun vessels carried thirty 18-pounders on their middle deck, while the 98-gun vessels carried a total of sixty 18-pounders, distributed over both the second and the third deck. First rates carried thirty-four 18-pounders on their third deck and 24-pounders on

4875-676: The 1830s; the first "warship" with an iron hull was the gunboat Nemesis , built by Jonathan Laird of Birkenhead for the East India Company in 1839. There followed, also from Laird, the first full-sized warship with a metal hull, the 1842 steam frigate Guadalupe for the Mexican Navy . The latter ship performed well during the Naval Battle of Campeche , with her captain reporting that he thought that there were fewer iron splinters from Guadalupe ' s hull than from

5000-514: The 1860s to the 1920s. Steam road vehicles were used for many applications. In the 20th century, the rapid development of internal combustion engine technology led to the demise of the steam engine as a source of propulsion of vehicles on a commercial basis, with relatively few remaining in use beyond the Second World War . Many of these vehicles were acquired by enthusiasts for preservation, and numerous examples are still in existence. In

5125-422: The 1880s has been criticized by historians. However, at least until the late 1870s, the British muzzle-loaders had superior performance in terms of both range and rate of fire than the French and Prussian breech-loaders, which suffered from the same problems as the first Armstrong guns. From 1875 onwards, the balance between breech- and muzzle-loading changed. Captain de Bange invented a method of reliably sealing

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5250-647: The 1880s. After a brief introduction of the 100-pounder or 9.2-inch (230 mm) smoothbore Somerset Gun , which weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t), the Admiralty introduced 7-inch (178 mm) rifled guns, weighing 7 long tons (7 t). These were followed by a series of increasingly mammoth weapons—guns weighing 12 long tons (12 t), 18 long tons (18 t), 25 long tons (25 t), 38 long tons (39 t) and finally 81 long tons (82 t), with caliber increasing from 8 inches (203 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm). The decision to retain muzzle-loaders until

5375-562: The 1960s, the air pollution problems in California gave rise to a brief period of interest in developing and studying steam-powered vehicles as a possible means of reducing the pollution. Apart from interest by steam enthusiasts, the occasional replica vehicle, and experimental technology, no steam vehicles are in production at present. Near the end of the 19th century, compound engines came into widespread use. Compound engines exhausted steam into successively larger cylinders to accommodate

5500-408: The 20th century, where their efficiency, higher speed appropriate to generator service, and smooth rotation were advantages. Today most electric power is provided by steam turbines. In the United States, 90% of the electric power is produced in this way using a variety of heat sources. Steam turbines were extensively applied for propulsion of large ships throughout most of the 20th century. Although

5625-595: The 81-ton, 16-inch guns of HMS  Inflexible fired only once every 11 minutes while bombarding Alexandria during the Urabi Revolt . The 102-long-ton (104 t), 450 mm (17.72 inch) guns of the Duilio class could each fire a round every 15 minutes. In the Royal Navy, the switch to breech-loaders was finally made in 1879; as well as the significant advantages in terms of performance, opinion

5750-490: The American Civil War. Ironclads were designed for several uses, including as high-seas battleships , long-range cruisers , and coastal defense ships. Rapid development of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel that carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships, and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change

5875-550: The British Admiralty agreed to build five armored floating batteries on the French plans. The French floating batteries were deployed in 1855 as a supplement to the wooden steam battle fleet in the Crimean War . The role of the battery was to assist unarmored mortar and gunboats bombarding shore fortifications. The French used three of their ironclad batteries ( Lave , Tonnante and Dévastation ) in 1855 against

6000-407: The British calibre systems, it was used in many European navies between the 17th and the 19th century. It was a heavy calibre for early ships of the line , arming, for instance, the main batteries of Couronne in 1636. From the late 18th century, the French Navy used the 18-pounder in three capacities: as the main gun on frigates, as the battery on the upper gundeck of two-deckers, and lastly on

6125-626: The Confederacy ;– especially in Russia, the only country to openly support the Union through the war. Only CSS Stonewall was completed, and she arrived in Cuban waters just in time for the end of the war. Through the remainder of the war, ironclads saw action in the Union's attacks on Confederate ports. Seven Union monitors, including USS  Montauk , as well as two other ironclads,

6250-613: The Crimean War, Emperor Napoleon III ordered the development of light-draft floating batteries, equipped with heavy guns and protected by heavy armor. Experiments made during the first half of 1854 proved highly satisfactory, and on 17 July 1854, the French communicated to the British Government that a solution had been found to make gun-proof vessels and that plans would be communicated. After tests in September 1854,

6375-477: The Union, but they were adequate for their intended use. More Western Flotilla Union ironclads were sunk by torpedoes (mines) than by enemy fire, and the most damaging fire for the Union ironclads was from shore installations, not Confederate vessels. The first fleet battle, and the first ocean battle, involving ironclad warships was the Battle of Lissa in 1866. Waged between the Austrian and Italian navies,

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6500-590: The United Kingdom soon managed to take the lead in production. Altogether, France built ten new wooden steam battleships and converted 28 from older ships of the line, while the United Kingdom built 18 and converted 41. The era of the wooden steam ship-of-the-line was brief, because of new, more powerful naval guns. In the 1820s and 1830s, warships began to mount increasingly heavy guns, replacing 18- and 24-pounder guns with 32-pounders on sailing ships-of-the-line and introducing 68-pounders on steamers. Then,

6625-575: The armored frigate New Ironsides and a light-draft USS  Keokuk , participated in the failed attack on Charleston ; one was sunk. Two small ironclads, CSS  Palmetto State and CSS  Chicora participated in the defense of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay , the Union assembled four monitors as well as 11 wooden ships, facing the CSS ; Tennessee , the Confederacy's most powerful ironclad, and three gunboats . On

6750-475: The atmosphere or into a condenser. As steam expands in passing through a high-pressure engine, its temperature drops because no heat is being added to the system; this is known as adiabatic expansion and results in steam entering the cylinder at high temperature and leaving at lower temperature. This causes a cycle of heating and cooling of the cylinder with every stroke, which is a source of inefficiency. The dominant efficiency loss in reciprocating steam engines

6875-403: The barrel itself slowing the shell. The sharpness of the black powder explosion also meant that guns were subjected to extreme stress. One important step was to press the powder into pellets, allowing a slower, more controlled explosion and a longer barrel. A further step forward was the introduction of chemically different brown powder which combusted more slowly again. It also put less stress on

7000-572: The battle pitted combined fleets of wooden frigates and corvettes and ironclad warships on both sides in the largest naval battle between the battles of Navarino and Tsushima . The Italian fleet consisted of 12 ironclads and a similar number of wooden warships, escorting transports which carried troops intending to land on the Adriatic island of Lissa. Among the Italian ironclads were seven broadside ironclad frigates, four smaller ironclads, and

7125-404: The boiler and engine in separate buildings some distance apart. For portable or mobile use, such as steam locomotives , the two are mounted together. The widely used reciprocating engine typically consisted of a cast-iron cylinder, piston, connecting rod and beam or a crank and flywheel, and miscellaneous linkages. Steam was alternately supplied and exhausted by one or more valves. Speed control

7250-417: The broadside-firing, masted designs of Gloire and Warrior . The clash of the Italian and Austrian fleets at the Battle of Lissa (1866), also had an important influence on the development of ironclad design. The first use of ironclads in combat came in the U.S. Civil War . The U.S. Navy at the time the war broke out had no ironclads, its most powerful ships being six unarmored steam-powered frigates. Since

7375-594: The bulk of the Navy remained loyal to the Union, the Confederacy sought to gain advantage in the naval conflict by acquiring modern armored ships. In May 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated $ 2 million dollars for the purchase of ironclads from overseas, and in July and August 1861 the Confederacy started work on construction and converting wooden ships. On 12 October 1861, CSS  Manassas became

7500-478: The case with smaller ships and later torpedo boats), which several naval designers considered the important weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but toward the end of the 1890s, the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated as battleships or armored cruisers . The ironclad became technically feasible and tactically necessary because of developments in shipbuilding in

7625-465: The challenges of picking the right armament; the breech-loaders she carried, designed by Sir William Armstrong , were intended to be the next generation of heavy armament for the Royal Navy, but were shortly withdrawn from service. Breech-loading guns seemed to offer important advantages. A breech-loader could be reloaded without moving the gun, a lengthy process particularly if the gun then needed to be re-aimed. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns also had

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7750-531: The critics and ordered that the four iron-hulled propeller frigates ordered by the Tories be converted into troopships . No iron warships would be ordered until the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854. Following the demonstration of the power of explosive shells against wooden ships at the Battle of Sinop , and fearing that his own ships would be vulnerable to the Paixhans guns of Russian fortifications in

7875-581: The day was that wrought iron begins to become brittle at temperatures below 20 °C (68 °F). Many of the tests were conducted at temperatures below this while the battles were fought in tropical climates. The early experimental results seemed to support the critics and party politics came into play as the Whig First Russell ministry replaced the Tory Second Peel Ministry in 1846. The new administration sided with

8000-411: The decade before the first ironclads. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, fleets had relied on two types of major warship, the ship of the line and the frigate . The first major change to these types was the introduction of steam power for propulsion . While paddle steamer warships had been used from the 1830s onward, steam propulsion only became suitable for major warships after the adoption of

8125-673: The defenses at the Battle of Kinburn on the Black Sea , where they were effective against Russian shore defences. They would later be used again during the Italian war in the Adriatic in 1859. The British floating batteries Glatton and Meteor arrived too late to participate to the action at Kinburn. The British planned to use theirs in the Baltic Sea against the well-fortified Russian naval base at Kronstadt. The batteries have

8250-401: The efficiency of the steam cycle. For safety reasons, nearly all steam engines are equipped with mechanisms to monitor the boiler, such as a pressure gauge and a sight glass to monitor the water level. Many engines, stationary and mobile, are also fitted with a governor to regulate the speed of the engine without the need for human interference. The most useful instrument for analyzing

8375-431: The end of the 1850s it was clear that France was unable to match British building of steam warships, and to regain the strategic initiative a dramatic change was required. The result was the first ocean-going ironclad, Gloire , begun in 1857 and launched in 1859. Gloire ' s wooden hull was modelled on that of a steam ship of the line, reduced to one deck, and sheathed in iron plates 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick. She

8500-492: The firepower of a frigate when she fought the action of 13 January 1797 in stormy weather, leading to her destruction at the hand of two British frigates that would normally not have been a match for her; in the opposite case, during the Glorious First of June , Vengeur du Peuple used her main batteries but became unmanageable and sank after taking in water from her lower gun-ports, whose covers had been ripped off in

8625-596: The first shell guns firing explosive shells were introduced following their development by the French Général Henri-Joseph Paixhans . By the 1840s they were part of the standard armament for naval powers including the French Navy , Royal Navy , Imperial Russian Navy and United States Navy . It is often held that the power of explosive shells to smash wooden hulls, as demonstrated by the Russian destruction of an Ottoman squadron at

8750-564: The first completely iron-hulled warships. They were first used in warfare in 1862 during the American Civil War , when ironclads operated against wooden ships and, in a historic confrontation, against each other at the Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia . Their performance demonstrated that the ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat. Ironclad gunboats became very successful in

8875-403: The first half of the 19th century. According to naval historian J. Richard Hill : "The (ironclad) had three chief characteristics: a metal-skinned hull, steam propulsion and a main armament of guns capable of firing explosive shells. It is only when all three characteristics are present that a fighting ship can properly be called an ironclad." Each of these developments was introduced separately in

9000-648: The first ironclad to enter combat, when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi during the Battle of the Head of Passes . She had been converted from a commercial vessel in New Orleans for river and coastal fighting. In February 1862, the larger CSS  Virginia joined the Confederate Navy, having been rebuilt at Norfolk . Constructed on the hull of USS  Merrimack , Virginia originally

9125-424: The front of the gun, but also imposes great stresses on the gun-barrel. If the breech—which experiences some of the greatest forces in the gun—is not entirely secure, then there is a risk that either gas will discharge through the breech or that the breech will break. This in turn reduces the muzzle velocity of the weapon and can also endanger the gun crew. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns suffered from both problems;

9250-485: The gradual replacement of steam engines in commercial usage. Steam turbines replaced reciprocating engines in power generation, due to lower cost, higher operating speed, and higher efficiency. Note that small scale steam turbines are much less efficient than large ones. As of 2023 , large reciprocating piston steam engines are still being manufactured in Germany. As noted, one recorded rudimentary steam-powered engine

9375-594: The heaviest calibers of gun ever used at sea. HMS  Benbow carried two 16.25-inch (413 mm) breech-loading guns , each weighing 110 long tons (112 t). A few years afterwards, the Italians used 450 mm (17.72 inch) muzzle-loading guns on the Duilio class ships. One consideration which became more acute was that even from the original Armstrong models, following the Crimean War, range and hitting power far exceeded simple accuracy, especially at sea where

9500-463: The higher volumes at reduced pressures, giving improved efficiency. These stages were called expansions, with double- and triple-expansion engines being common, especially in shipping where efficiency was important to reduce the weight of coal carried. Steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th century, when advances in the design of the steam turbine , electric motors , and internal combustion engines gradually resulted in

9625-412: The insides of the barrel, allowing guns to last longer and to be manufactured to tighter tolerances. The development of smokeless powder , based on nitroglycerine or nitrocellulose, by the French inventor Paul Vielle in 1884 was a further step allowing smaller charges of propellant with longer barrels. The guns of the pre-Dreadnought battleships of the 1890s tended to be smaller in caliber compared to

9750-429: The late 18th century. At least one engine was still known to be operating in 1820. The first commercially successful engine that could transmit continuous power to a machine was the atmospheric engine , invented by Thomas Newcomen around 1712. It improved on Savery's steam pump, using a piston as proposed by Papin. Newcomen's engine was relatively inefficient, and mostly used for pumping water. It worked by creating

9875-490: The line used the same arrangement; these ships carried thirty-four 18-pounders. During the First French Empire, 18-pounders would also arm Type 1 Model Towers for coastal defence. After introduction of rifled artillery in the middle 19th century, long 18-pounders were converted into so-called "14 cm n° 1 rifled muzzle-loaders Model 1864", by etching grooves on the inside of the barrel. The Royal Navy used

10000-445: The line, but was determined that the first British ironclad would outmatch the French ships in every respect, particularly speed. A fast ship would have the advantage of being able to choose a range of engagement that could make her invulnerable to enemy fire. The British specification was more a large, powerful frigate than a ship-of-the-line. The requirement for speed meant a very long vessel, which had to be built from iron. The result

10125-455: The lower deck. A 74-gun would carry thirty 18-pounders; this lighter secondary battery added firepower to the ship without raising the centre of gravity too much. In rough weather, vessels often could not use their main battery lest water enter through the gun-ports , and the secondary battery then became the vessel's main armament; for example, the Droits de l'Homme was effectively reduced to

10250-435: The main naval armament by the ram. Those who noted the tiny number of ships that had actually been sunk by ramming struggled to be heard. The revival of ramming had a significant effect on naval tactics. Since the 17th century the predominant tactic of naval warfare had been the line of battle , where a fleet formed a long line to give it the best fire from its broadside guns. This tactic was totally unsuited to ramming, and

10375-560: The melée which followed both sides were frustrated by the lack of damage inflicted by guns, and by the difficulty of ramming—nonetheless, the effective ramming attack being made by the Austrian flagship against the Italian attracted great attention in following years. The superior Italian fleet lost its two ironclads, Re d'Italia and Palestro , while the Austrian unarmored screw two-decker SMS  Kaiser remarkably survived close actions with four Italian ironclads. The battle ensured

10500-627: The middle deck. In his discussion of the single-ship action in which the French frigate Piémontaise captured the East Indiaman Warren Hastings on 11 June 1805, the naval historian William James compared the 18-pounder medium guns on Warren Hastings with the 18-pounder long guns that the British Royal Navy used. The medium 18-pounder was 6 ft (1.8 m) long, and weighed 26 + 3 ⁄ 4   long cwt (3,000 lb; 1,360 kg);

10625-399: The nature of the gas although compressed air has been used in steam engines without change. As with all heat engines, the majority of primary energy must be emitted as waste heat at relatively low temperature. The simplest cold sink is to vent the steam to the environment. This is often used on steam locomotives to avoid the weight and bulk of condensers. Some of the released steam

10750-407: The newly built Affondatore  – a double-turreted ram. Opposing them, the Austrian navy had seven ironclad frigates. The Austrians believed their ships to have less effective guns than their enemy, so decided to engage the Italians at close range and ram them. The Austrian fleet formed into an arrowhead formation with the ironclads in the first line, charging at the Italian ironclad squadron. In

10875-518: The pace of the Industrial Revolution. The meaning of high pressure, together with an actual value above ambient, depends on the era in which the term was used. For early use of the term Van Reimsdijk refers to steam being at a sufficiently high pressure that it could be exhausted to atmosphere without reliance on a vacuum to enable it to perform useful work. Ewing 1894 , p. 22 states that Watt's condensing engines were known, at

11000-456: The performance of steam engines is the steam engine indicator. Early versions were in use by 1851, but the most successful indicator was developed for the high speed engine inventor and manufacturer Charles Porter by Charles Richard and exhibited at London Exhibition in 1862. The steam engine indicator traces on paper the pressure in the cylinder throughout the cycle, which can be used to spot various problems and calculate developed horsepower. It

11125-456: The piston axis in vertical position. In time the horizontal arrangement became more popular, allowing compact, but powerful engines to be fitted in smaller spaces. The acme of the horizontal engine was the Corliss steam engine , patented in 1849, which was a four-valve counter flow engine with separate steam admission and exhaust valves and automatic variable steam cutoff. When Corliss was given

11250-470: The popularity of the ram as a weapon in European ironclads for many years, and the victory won by Austria established it as the predominant naval power in the Adriatic . The battles of the American Civil War and at Lissa were very influential on the designs and tactics of the ironclad fleets that followed. In particular, it taught a generation of naval officers the (ultimately erroneous) lesson that ramming

11375-428: The railways. Reciprocating piston type steam engines were the dominant source of power until the early 20th century. The efficiency of stationary steam engine increased dramatically until about 1922. The highest Rankine Cycle Efficiency of 91% and combined thermal efficiency of 31% was demonstrated and published in 1921 and 1928. Advances in the design of electric motors and internal combustion engines resulted in

11500-502: The ram seemed to offer the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. The scant damage inflicted by the guns of Monitor and Virginia at Hampton Roads and the spectacular but lucky success of the Austrian flagship SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max sinking the Italian Re d'Italia at Lissa gave strength to the ramming craze. From the early 1870s to early 1880s most British naval officers thought that guns were about to be replaced as

11625-505: The ram threw fleet tactics into disarray. The question of how an ironclad fleet should deploy in battle to make best use of the ram was never tested in battle, and if it had been, combat might have shown that rams could only be used against ships which were already stopped dead in the water. The ram finally fell out of favor in the 1880s, as the same effect could be achieved with a torpedo , with less vulnerability to quick-firing guns. The armament of ironclads tended to become concentrated in

11750-406: The reciprocating steam engine is no longer in widespread commercial use, various companies are exploring or exploiting the potential of the engine as an alternative to internal combustion engines. There are two fundamental components of a steam plant: the boiler or steam generator , and the "motor unit", referred to itself as a "steam engine". Stationary steam engines in fixed buildings may have

11875-417: The replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines, with merchant shipping relying increasingly upon diesel engines , and warships on the steam turbine. As the development of steam engines progressed through the 18th century, various attempts were made to apply them to road and railway use. In 1784, William Murdoch , a Scottish inventor, built a model steam road locomotive. An early working model of

12000-578: The river is injected into the exhaust steam from the engine. Cooling water and condensate mix. While this was also applied for sea-going vessels, generally after only a few days of operation the boiler would become coated with deposited salt, reducing performance and increasing the risk of a boiler explosion. Starting about 1834, the use of surface condensers on ships eliminated fouling of the boilers, and improved engine efficiency. Evaporated water cannot be used for subsequent purposes (other than rain somewhere), whereas river water can be re-used. In all cases,

12125-421: The rivers, the first two of which differed from the ocean-going monitors in that they contained a paddle wheel ( USS  Neosho and USS  Osage ). The Union ironclads played an important role in the Mississippi and tributaries by providing tremendous fire upon Confederate forts, installations and vessels with relative impunity to enemy fire. They were not as heavily armored as the ocean-going monitors of

12250-399: The shells were unable to penetrate the 4.5-inch (114 mm) armor of Gloire , while sometimes the screw which closed the breech flew backwards out of the gun on firing. Similar problems were experienced with the breech-loading guns which became standard in the French and German navies. These problems influenced the British to equip ships with muzzle-loading weapons of increasing power until

12375-420: The ships of the 1880s, most often 12 in (305 mm), but progressively grew in length of barrel, making use of improved propellants to gain greater muzzle velocity. The nature of the projectiles also changed during the ironclad period. Initially, the best armor-piercing projectile was a solid cast-iron shot. Later, shot of chilled iron , a harder iron alloy, gave better armor-piercing qualities. Eventually

12500-526: The slightest roll or pitch of the vessel as 'floating weapons-platform' could negate the advantage of rifling. American ordnance experts accordingly preferred smoothbore monsters whose round shot could at least 'skip' along the surface of the water. Actual effective combat ranges, they had learned during the Civil War, were comparable to those in the Age of Sail—though a vessel could now be smashed to pieces in only

12625-447: The smaller USS  Galena . The first battle between ironclads happened on 9 March 1862, as the armored Monitor was deployed to protect the Union's wooden fleet from the ironclad ram Virginia and other Confederate warships. In this engagement, the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads , the two ironclads tried to ram one another while shells bounced off their armor. The battle attracted attention worldwide, making it clear that

12750-402: The steam available for expansive work. When the expanding steam reaches low pressure (especially during the exhaust stroke), the previously deposited water droplets that had just been formed within the cylinder/ports now boil away (re-evaporation) and this steam does no further work in the cylinder. 18-pounder long gun As the 18-pounder calibre was consistent with both the French and

12875-412: The steam plant boiler feed water, which must be kept pure, is kept separate from the cooling water or air. Most steam boilers have a means to supply water whilst at pressure, so that they may be run continuously. Utility and industrial boilers commonly use multi-stage centrifugal pumps ; however, other types are used. Another means of supplying lower-pressure boiler feed water is an injector , which uses

13000-489: The temperature of the steam above its saturated vapour point, and various mechanisms to increase the draft for fireboxes. When coal is used, a chain or screw stoking mechanism and its drive engine or motor may be included to move the fuel from a supply bin (bunker) to the firebox. The heat required for boiling the water and raising the temperature of the steam can be derived from various sources, most commonly from burning combustible materials with an appropriate supply of air in

13125-418: The tests partially confirmed this belief. What was ignored was that 14 inches (356 mm) of wood backing the iron would stop most of the splinters from penetrating and that relatively thin plates of iron backed by the same thickness of wood would generally cause shells to split open and fail to detonate. One factor in the performance of wrought iron during these tests that was not understood by metallurgists of

13250-482: The time, as low pressure compared to high pressure, non-condensing engines of the same period. Watt's patent prevented others from making high pressure and compound engines. Shortly after Watt's patent expired in 1800, Richard Trevithick and, separately, Oliver Evans in 1801 introduced engines using high-pressure steam; Trevithick obtained his high-pressure engine patent in 1802, and Evans had made several working models before then. These were much more powerful for

13375-599: The top deck of three-deckers. French frigates began carrying the 18-pounder under Louis XV , when the two Pourvoyeuse -class frigates, originally designed to carry 24-pounders , were equipped with it; at the time, a typical frigate would carry 12-pounders . Under Louis XVI , from 1779, the 18-pounder gradually became the standard calibre for frigates, starting with the Hébé class . These frigates were built on standard patterns designed by Jacques-Noël Sané , carrying 26, and later 28 main guns, complemented with smaller pieces on

13500-416: The virtue of being lighter than an equivalent smoothbore and, because of their rifling, more accurate. Nonetheless, the design was rejected because of problems which plagued breech-loaders for decades. The weakness of the breech-loader was the obvious problem of sealing the breech. All guns are powered by the explosive conversion of a solid propellant into gas. This explosion propels the shot or shell out of

13625-560: The western front, the Union built a formidable force of river ironclads, beginning with several converted riverboats and then contracting engineer James Eads of St. Louis , Missouri to build the City-class ironclads. These excellent ships were built with twin engines and a central paddle wheel, all protected by an armored casemate. They had a shallow draft, allowing them to journey up smaller tributaries, and were very well suited for river operations. Eads also produced monitors for use on

13750-554: The wooden warship was now out of date, with the ironclads destroying them easily. The Civil War saw more ironclads built by both sides, and they played an increasing role in the naval war alongside the unarmored warships, commerce raiders and blockade runners. The Union built a large fleet of fifty monitors modeled on their namesake. The Confederacy built ships designed as smaller versions of Virginia , many of which saw action, but their attempts to buy ironclads overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for

13875-611: Was a conventional warship made of wood, but she was converted into an iron-covered casemate ironclad gunship, when she entered the Confederate Navy . By this time, the Union had completed seven ironclad gunboats of the City class , and was about to complete USS  Monitor , an innovative design proposed by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson . The Union was also building a large armored frigate, USS  New Ironsides , and

14000-546: Was developed by Trevithick and others in the 1810s. It was a compound cycle engine that used high-pressure steam expansively, then condensed the low-pressure steam, making it relatively efficient. The Cornish engine had irregular motion and torque through the cycle, limiting it mainly to pumping. Cornish engines were used in mines and for water supply until the late 19th century. Early builders of stationary steam engines considered that horizontal cylinders would be subject to excessive wear. Their engines were therefore arranged with

14125-450: Was either automatic, using a governor, or by a manual valve. The cylinder casting contained steam supply and exhaust ports. Engines equipped with a condenser are a separate type than those that exhaust to the atmosphere. Other components are often present; pumps (such as an injector ) to supply water to the boiler during operation, condensers to recirculate the water and recover the latent heat of vaporisation, and superheaters to raise

14250-531: Was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830 making exclusive use of steam power for both passenger and freight trains. Steam locomotives continued to be manufactured until the late twentieth century in places such as China and the former East Germany (where the DR Class 52.80 was produced). The final major evolution of the steam engine design

14375-411: Was improved over time and coupled with variable steam cut off, good speed control in response to changes in load was attainable near the end of the 19th century. In a simple engine, or "single expansion engine" the charge of steam passes through the entire expansion process in an individual cylinder, although a simple engine may have one or more individual cylinders. It is then exhausted directly into

14500-461: Was more susceptible to fouling by marine life. By 1862, navies across Europe had adopted ironclads. Britain and France each had sixteen either completed or under construction, though the British vessels were larger. Austria, Italy, Russia, and Spain were also building ironclads. However, the first battles using the new ironclad ships took place during the American Civil War, between Union and Confederate ships in 1862. These were markedly different from

14625-479: Was not until after Richard Trevithick had developed the use of high-pressure steam, around 1800, that mobile steam engines became a practical proposition. The first half of the 19th century saw great progress in steam vehicle design, and by the 1850s it was becoming viable to produce them on a commercial basis. This progress was dampened by legislation which limited or prohibited the use of steam-powered vehicles on roads. Improvements in vehicle technology continued from

14750-449: Was propelled by a steam engine, driving a single screw propeller for a speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was armed with thirty-six 6.4-inch (160 mm) rifled guns. France proceeded to construct 16 ironclad warships, including two sister ships to Gloire , and the only two-decked broadside ironclads ever built, Magenta and Solférino . The Royal Navy had not been keen to sacrifice its advantage in steam ships of

14875-418: Was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in ferrous metallurgy that made steel shipbuilding possible. The quick pace of change meant that many ships were obsolete almost as soon as they were finished and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the naval ram , the torpedo , or sometimes both (as in

15000-496: Was routinely used by engineers, mechanics and insurance inspectors. The engine indicator can also be used on internal combustion engines. See image of indicator diagram below (in Types of motor units section). The centrifugal governor was adopted by James Watt for use on a steam engine in 1788 after Watt's partner Boulton saw one on the equipment of a flour mill Boulton & Watt were building. The governor could not actually hold

15125-408: Was swayed by an explosion on board HMS  Thunderer caused by a gun being double-loaded, a problem which could only happen with a muzzle-loading gun. The caliber and weight of guns could only increase so far. The larger the gun, the slower it would be to load, the greater the stresses on the ship's hull, and the less the stability of the ship. The size of the gun peaked in the 1880s, with some of

15250-763: Was the aeolipile described by Hero of Alexandria , a Hellenistic mathematician and engineer in Roman Egypt during the first century AD. In the following centuries, the few steam-powered engines known were, like the aeolipile, essentially experimental devices used by inventors to demonstrate the properties of steam. A rudimentary steam turbine device was described by Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt in 1551 and by Giovanni Branca in Italy in 1629. The Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont received patents in 1606 for 50 steam-powered inventions, including

15375-417: Was the best way to sink enemy ironclads. The adoption of iron armor meant that the traditional naval armament of dozens of light cannon became useless, since their shot would bounce off an armored hull. To penetrate armor, increasingly heavy guns were mounted on ships; nevertheless, the view that ramming was the only way to sink an ironclad became widespread. The increasing size and weight of guns also meant

15500-426: Was the construction of two Warrior -class ironclads; HMS  Warrior and HMS  Black Prince . The ships had a successful design, though there were necessarily compromises between 'sea-keeping', strategic range and armor protection. Their weapons were more effective than those of Gloire , and with the largest set of steam engines yet fitted to a ship, they could steam at 14.3 knots (26.5 km/h). Yet

15625-438: Was the use of steam turbines starting in the late part of the 19th century. Steam turbines are generally more efficient than reciprocating piston type steam engines (for outputs above several hundred horsepower), have fewer moving parts, and provide rotary power directly instead of through a connecting rod system or similar means. Steam turbines virtually replaced reciprocating engines in electricity generating stations early in

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