Jonathan Hornblower (5 July 1753 – 23 February 1815) was an English pioneer of

steam power 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 trans ...

Personal life

The son of Jonathan Hornblower the Elder and the brother of

Jabez Carter Hornblower Jabez Carter Hornblower (21 May 1744 – 14 July 1814) was an English pioneer of steam power, and the son of Jonathan Hornblower. Early life Hornblower was born in Broseley, Shropshire, England. He was the eldest child of steam engineer Jonatha ...

, two fellow pioneers, the young Hornblower was educated at Truro Grammar School. He was

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

at Trelever on 25 July 1773, aged 20 (he and his family were much involved in Baptist churches in Cornwall), and was

apprenticed Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to a metal-working tradesman at Penryn. He married twice, first to his cousin Rosamund Phillips in 1775 and later to Elizabeth Jordan with whom he had two surviving daughters, Rosamund (1789) and Elizabeth (1790). He died on 23 February 1815 and is buried in

St Gluvias St Gluvias is a settlement in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is now a suburb on the northern edge of Penryn which is northwest of Falmouth. Until 1 April 2021 there was civil parish was called St Gluvias which doesn't include ...

Churchyard.

Compound engine

He invented the

compound steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

in 1781 and patented it on 16 July in the same year. This type of engine has two cylinders, an evolution from the single low pressure, condensing engines of Newcomen and later Watt (who introduced the separate condenser), it introduced a high-pressure cylinder before the low-pressure cylinder. The principle is that the steam first expands in the high-pressure cylinder and afterwards expands again in the low-pressure cylinder. Even though this was a revolutionary new steam technology, he was unfortunately prevented from pursuing his invention by litigation with

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...

(

Boulton & Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engli ...

) over

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

. His compound engine principle was not revived until 1804 (by

Arthur Woolf Arthur Woolf (1766, Camborne, Cornwall – 16 October 1837, Guernsey) was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure compound steam engine. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of the ...

) following the expiration of Boulton and Watt's patent. Hornblower's compound engine principle contributed significantly to the increases in steam

engine efficiency Engine efficiency of thermal engines is the relationship between the total energy contained in the fuel, and the amount of energy used to perform useful work. There are two classifications of thermal engines- #Internal combustion (gasoline, diesel ...

, and it was the foundation of the expansion engine. See Also McNaught'ed Engines

Rotary engine

After the patent litigation with Boulton & Watt, Hornblower came up with an idea for a new kind of

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and i ...

. He worked on it for several years and patented it on 5 June 1798. The engine's construction was the most complex so far, but as before he ran into trouble with Watt's patents on these subjects.

Double beat valve

He invented the double-beat steam valve around 1800. This valve is a type of poppet valve, it can open against a high pressure with a minimum of force, usually operated by trip valve gear. The valve was used in railway locomotives, beam engines, grasshopper engines and paddle steamers and became widely used during the 19th century.

Steam-wheel

In 1805 Hornblower developed a steam-wheel.

References

Encyclopædia Britannica (2007): ''Jonathan Carter Hornblower''.

External links

The compound engine
*
The Case Against Intellectual Monopoly
' by Boldrin & Levine

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornblower, Jonathan 1753 births 1815 deaths Engineers from Cornwall People from Chacewater British steam engine engineers People educated at Truro Cathedral School Burials in Cornwall