@article{ref1,
title="A new perspective on the natural philosophy of steams and its relation to the steam engine",
journal="Technology and culture",
year="2020",
author="Miller, David Philip",
volume="61",
number="4",
pages="1129-1148",
abstract="Historians' understanding of the steam engine's evolution suffers from back-projections of nineteenth-century physical science, notably thermodynamics,  onto the eighteenth century. The idea of steam as a &quot;working substance&quot; to merely  transfer heat is anachronistic in the eighteenth-century context. It has led to  serious misconceptions. To correct this misreading, this article uncovers three  major areas discussing steam in the eighteenth century: producing a vacuum for fire  engines and fire pumps; examining experimentally the bulk properties of steam; and  the &quot;chemistry of steams&quot; that included studying effluvia and miasmas and that  considered steam responsible for earthquakes, winds, storms, and other natural  phenomena. In the eighteenth century, more natural philosophizing about steam (and  other matters) was done in and across practical settings in the large than  historians have realized. Subsequent understandings and later divisions of knowledge  and practice have obscured much.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0040-165X",
doi="10.1353/tech.2020.0113",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2020.0113"
}