NEWCOMEN, THOMAS, one of the inventors of the steam-engine, was a native of Devonshire, and was born about the middle of the 17th century. While employed as an ironmonger in Dartmouth he corresponded with Robert Hooke about the previous investigations of Papin and the marquis of Worcester as to the applicability of steam-power for the purpose of driving machinery, and in conjunction with Cawley, a glazier in Dartmouth, and Savary, the manager of a Cornish mine, he :obtained in 1705 a patent- for a "fire-engine," now known as the "atmospheric steam-engine," which was the first piece of mechanism in which steam was used with practical success. He died about 1713. See STEAM-ENGINE.