Newcomen, THOMAS, the inventor of a Steam-engine (q.v.), was born at Dartmouth sometime in the month of February 1663, and died in London in August 1729. In 1705, along with Cawley, a Dartmouth glazier, and Savery, the manager of a Cornish mine, he obtained a patent for what is now known as the atmospheric steam-engine.
Some six years later his invention was brought into use for pumping water out of mines.