Nathan Read
| Nathan Read | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 10th district |
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In office November 25, 1800 – March 3, 1803 |
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| Preceded by | Samuel Sewall |
| Succeeded by | Seth Hastings |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 2, 1759 Warren, Massachusetts |
| Died | January 20, 1849 (aged 89) Belfast, Maine |
| Political party | Federalist |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Engineer |
Nathan Read (July 2, 1759 – January 20, 1849) was an American engineer and steam pioneer.
Nathan Read was the true inventor of the high-pressure steam engine in 1789, this was twelve years before the steam-engine was known to be used in the form of a high-pressure engine, and led a great revolution in steam power to navigation and land-transport.
Nathan Read was born in Warren, Massachusetts, on July 2, 1759. His ancestors came from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, northeast England. His father, Reuben Read, was an officer in the Revolutionary service and his mother, whose maiden name was Tamison Eastman, was first cousin to Major-General Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island.
In 1774, Nathan Read commenced his preparatory studies for college. At the close of the summer vacation of 1777, he became a member of Harvard University.
At Harvard, Read studied medicine and graduated in 1781. He taught school in Beverly and Salem and was elected a tutor in Harvard University. After graduated, he became a scholar until 1783. Then, he was elected a tutor and continued his labors as such where he continued until 1787. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791.
Then, he opened an apothecary store in Salem and developed the potassium bicarbonate (CHKO3) in 1788, but kept it for only one year.
From October 1788, Nathan Read quit the last work and began to make a number of improvements of the steam engine. He built the multi-tubular boiler, a new kind of steam boiler. He then made efforts on improve the function of the steam cylinder, and placed it in a horizontal position so the engine could sustain much higher pressure than ever before, that is to say, Read invented the high-pressure steam engine, a new kind of steam engine, different from James Watt's old engine. Read made the engine more convenient and portable, also much lighter and safer. The most important was that the new engine needed much less room and fuel than the old one. Read successfully reconstructed the steam engine; he modified the Watt engine to a high-pressure engine that could be widely used in new fields, such as steamboat and locomotive.
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