James Watt was urged by Boulton to invent some form of rotary motion for his steam engines. The idea was to replace the reciprocating action of the original. In 1781 he did just that.

The history of the rotary engine is a strange and wonderful tale that dates back as far as 1588 when Ramelli invented the first rotary-piston-type water pump. Almost 200 years later James Watt, ...

The Smethwick Engine, erected in 1779 in Smethwick, England, is one of the oldest working steam engines in the world. Designed by James Watt, it played a pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution ...

So it was for James Watt, whose Watt engine is often considered one of the cornerstones of the Industrial Revolution. This is why the watt is what we call the unit of power equal to one joule of ...

The rotary engine in the 1991 RX-7 featured twin turbo charging, which enabled its output of around 250 horsepower from a compact package. (© Mazda) In the early 1960s, ...

A new rotary engine for Mazda sports cars is entering development, and could bring all sorts of groundbreaking tech to the RX-7's successor.

Much like James Watt's improvements to the steam engine of yore, the Adams-Farwell 20 horsepower engine provided a much smoother operation because it was well-balanced, had fewer moving parts (i.e ...

Mazda Rotary Engines: The rotary engine is a unique type of engine that uses rotational movement of triangular rotors to generate power. Mazda was the first automaker to mass-produce rotary ...