Author here. The beam engine created power from steam, and was a key part of the early Industrial Revolution. The article is a deep dive into the engine: how it works, the history behind it, and the engineering tradeoffs the builders faced. There are quite a few interactive figures that I hope make the concepts easier to see.

For those in London who want to see one of these in the flesh, as it were, there's one in Tottenham: https://www.mbeam.org/

Cool! If you're in New Zealand, there is a massive, two story Double Woolf beam engine at MOTAT museum in Auckland, along with an array of other steam driven engines that they run from time to time.

This reminds me a lot of https://ciechanow.ski, down to the body typeface. (IBM Plex Sans?) Also, the SI units everywhere here make me beam. Thank you :)

This is what finally made the idea behind Watt's condenser click for me.

First off, this is very cool, I love these kind of breakdowns from first principal.

This is sending me :)

> One cup of water becomes roughly 400 litres of steam, enough to fill two bathtubs

Three units of measurement in one sentence, my favorite unit is bathtubs.

Great historical science book on the steam engine here: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Powerful-Idea-World-Invention/dp...

One of my favorites. Good read.

Ever hear the phrase "Balls out" when referring to pushing something to the max? Comes form the balls of the centrifugal engine governor. At maximum speed the balls extended all the way outward giving us the term "Running balls out."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor

edit: I once said this phrase at a work meeting and someone objected to my use of a crude term which I then explained much to everyone's surprise. They thought it had something to do with testicles.