Steam Engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The cited article explains that the engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder, and that this pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work. The term is normally applied to reciprocating engines, although it is also used more widely. For farm implements it names the power of a steam traction engine or stationary engine driving a thresher or plough. Implements recorded in the atlas as steam powered are grouped under this concept.