Timeline of heat engine technology
This timeline of heat engine technology describes how heat engines have been known since antiquity but have been made into increasingly useful devices since the 17th century as a better understanding of the processes involved was gained.A heat engine is any system that converts heat to mechanical energy, which can then be used to do mechanical work.They continue to be developed today.In engineering and thermodynamics, a heat engine performs the conversion of heat energy to mechanical work by exploiting the temperature gradient between a hot "source" and a cold "sink".Work is used to create a heat differential.The timeline includes devices classed as both engines and pumps, as well as identifying significant leaps in human understanding.