Steam Engine - Part 3

At the engine, the steam goes first into a slide valve, which is like a flexible hose that feeds the steam first into one end of the cylinder, and then into the other. Within the cylinder, the steam pushes a piston back and forth. A rod attached to the piston and extending out through one end of the cylinder, transfers the back and forth motion of the piston to a crank that changes the back and forth motion into a rotary motion.

The crank, in turn, is attached to a device called an eccentric t...