Why Tea Kettles Are Not the Answer to Drone Development

The act of invention is a curious thing. When looking back in time, it can often seem as if an invention was conjured out of thin air. But that’s never the case. 

Take the steam engine. It’s common lore that one day a young James Watt saw steam pushing out of a tea kettle and then he conceptualized steam pushing a piston, thus creating the steam engine. 

Nope. Steam engines had been around for perhaps as long as a century prior to James Watt, e.g.,  the Newcomen steam engine, developed around 1712 by Thomas Newcomen, was one of the first practical steam engines. Yet, because it was so underpowered, the Newcomen steam engine was not much of a commercial success.  It was primarily used to pump water out of mines. 

But everyone at the time realized that the steam engine was the answer to power way more things than water pumps. The problem was that everyone was just trying to optimize Newcomen’s design. They didn’t understand the fundamental issues that made the Newcomen engine so underpowered. They didn’t use first principles thinking. 

Watt’s genius then was not that he invented the steam engine but that, based on an understanding of first principles, he connected many other inventions and ideas to make the steam engine powerful enough to run everything that the budding industrial revolution in Britain needed by the 19th century: factories, locomotives, navies, etc. 

So what were those other inventions and ideas that he connected? There were many, but let’s focus on three.  

First: Latent (or Hidden) Heat. Joseph Black was the kind of guy that, if you were stuck in a conversation circle with him at a party, you wished you had conjured up an excuse to leave early. He would talk your ear off about all things “latent heat” as if it was the only thing anyone would care about. 

Yet if you were a young James Watt, you’d actually be interested in hearing it. You see, what Joseph Black had discovered was that water would absorb a linear amount of heat as long as it was just water but water would absorb way more heat in phase transitions, e.g., going from water to steam. (It was “latent heat” because the heat absorbed in phase transition wasn’t seen on a thermometer and so it was “latent” or “hidden heat.”)

Why is this important? Well, what James Watt realized was this: the Newcomen engine was underpowered because it did the phase transition from water to steam and steam to water in the cylinder itself. Steam would go in the cylinder to push the piston up and then a jet of water would go in the cylinder to pull the piston down (by creating a low pressure vacuum) and this required a lot of energy to change the cylinder’s temperature. Because of latent heat. 

The solution? James Watt created a separate condenser that had the water so the cylinder always stayed hot. No more phase transitions in the cylinder itself. 

Second: Material Science. By the mid-1700s the Darby family of Coalbrookdale were the “material science” gurus of the day. They had pioneered smelting iron ore with coal and this produced far better-quality cast iron than what Newcomen had. James Watt needed that material science to produce a new solid piece cast iron to make his cylinders.

Third: Machining. Because with that new solid piece cast iron in hand, James Watt next finds this guy, John Wilkinson, who is the noodler’s noodler for all things machining in the 1700s. He’s like the Steve Jobs of lathe machines. 

Why is that important? Well, the other problem with the Newcomen engine is that nothing fit right in the design. The tolerances were too loose. So loose in fact that the piston rattled and slapped in the cylinder, which was annoying, but it also let lots of steam and water escape. And this radically decreased its efficiency. 

Wilkinson solved all of this. Far beyond what anyone at the time could do, he could bore a cylinder (out of that solid piece of cast iron developed by the Darby family) that is within a fraction of a fraction of an inch. This means the piston fits tightly in the cylinder and that in turn means that when you inject steam into the cylinder none of the steam escapes around the piston. Super efficient. 

The 21st Century Version of the Steam Engine. Is the drone the steam engine of the 21st century? We here at Modovolo like to make outrageous comparisons to all things drones. Things like toilets, the Ford Model T, and bacon. So we think that talking about drones and steam engines is actually one of our less ridiculous comparisons. 

First: What is the “Latent Heat” of drones? We think that the propellers are the “latent heat” problem of current drones. Why is that? Well, we’ve talked about “Beefy Propellers” in the past and how “beefy” is better than “skinny” (at least when it comes to propellers).  And beefy propellers are super efficient just like James Watt’s separate condenser design. And skinny propellers are very inefficient like the Newcomen steam engine design. Yet every current drone is designed with skinny propellers. Coincidentally, the Modovolo Lift uses beefy propellers. 

Second: What is the Material Science and Machining of drones? There is a simple formula for current drones: you take ABS plastic, carbon fiber or kevlar molds, and aluminum fittings and mash them together with a bunch of screws and other fasteners. But material science has advanced far beyond these expensive products to plastics that are far lighter, stronger, and less expensive. Also, pure coincidence, but the Modovolo Lift uses these next-generation plastics.

But there’s a catch. These next-generation plastics are super difficult to use. It’s why we’ve built our own proprietary 3-D printer called the BFP (the “Big F***ing Printer”) and it’s why the BFP is like a vomiting frat boy. Only the BFP can handle the flow rate and other parameters to build drone parts using these next-generation plastics. Oh, and, yes, patent pending on that. 

It would be easy to dismiss this as just a promotion for the Modovolo Lift. But that would be missing the point. True innovation isn't about slightly improving the existing design—it's about returning to first principles to redefine what's possible. James Watt didn't just build a better water pump; he powered a revolution. That is the legacy we are committed to, ensuring the drone is not just a better version of today's kettle, but the true steam engine of the 21st century.