The timing of Bessler's discovery, after some ten years research, was unfortunate - 6th June 1712.
Denis Papin's experimental steam cylinder and piston was published in 1690 and he finally left Kassel in 1707. After more than ten years his research culminated in 1704, with a ship powered by his steam engine, mechanically linked to paddles. He died in London in 1712.
In 1698 Thomas Savery patented a steam-powered pump. It was not as powerful as the Newcomen engine.
In 1712 Thomas Newcomen built the first successful steam engine in the world which was used for pumping water from coal mines. Savery's original patent of July 1698 gave 14 years' protection; the next year, 1699, an Act of Parliament was passed which extended his protection for a further 21 years.
Savery's patent covered all engines that raised water by fire and Newcomen was forced to go into partnership with Savery. By 1712, arrangements had been made with Newcomen to develop Newcomen's more advanced design of steam engine, which was marketed under Savery's patent. Newcomen's engine used the piston concept invented in 1690 by the Frenchman Denis Papin to produce the first steam engine capable of raising water from deep mines.
Unfortunately for him, the work of these men accidentally conspired to rob Bessler of his rightful place among the engine pioneers of .the 18th Century. Their machines were designed and built by creditable 'gentlemen' and backed by establishment and members of the Royal Society in London..
I often wonder what might have happened if the others had not been there when Bessler exhibited his machine - and if he had sold it!
Some people have speculated that it was because we experienced the steam age which, via the internal combustion engine, led to the petroleum age and hence the discovery of the many other benefits from the expansion of research into crude oil, and that we might have omitted that era if we had taken hold of Bessler's wheel and thus side-stepped much that we take for granted? My personal opinion is that combustion engines would still have prevailed.
Even as far back as 1673, Huygens carried out experiments with a basic form of internal combustion engine, fuelled by gunpowder, and although he never succeeded in building one that worked, his attempts were helpful to those that were successful. It seems to me perfectly reasonable to think that all the same engines and their fuels would have been developed in more or less the same time period as happened, with or without Bessler's wheel.
JC
