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How did the parallel motion guide the piston rod in James Watt’s engine?
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James Watt
James Watt, oil painting by H. Howard; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
In James Watt’s double-acting steam engine, the piston was required to both push and pull, which necessitated a new method for rigidly connecting the piston to the beam. Watt solved this challenge in 1784 by inventing the parallel motion.1
This mechanism consisted of an arrangement of connected rods that guided the piston rod in a perpendicular motion. Watt himself described this innovation as one of the most ingenious and simple pieces of mechanism he ever contrived.1