--- title: Historical Hack: Henri Griffard’s Steam Injectors description: Explains how Henri Griffard's 1850s steam injector works, a device that pumps water into a high-pressure steam locomotive boiler with no moving parts. It... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/historical-hack-henri-griffard-s-steam-injectors-qnwvczuuy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Historical Hack: Henri Griffard’s Steam Injectors | daily.dev og:description: Explains how Henri Griffard's 1850s steam injector works, a device that pumps water into a high-pressure steam locomotive boiler with no moving parts. It... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/historical-hack-henri-griffard-s-steam-injectors-qnwvczuuy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QnWvczUuy.png og:image:alt: Historical Hack: Henri Griffard’s Steam Injectors og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Historical Hack: Henri Griffard’s Steam Injectors **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Explains how Henri Griffard's 1850s steam injector works, a device that pumps water into a high-pressure steam locomotive boiler with no moving parts. It relies on Bernoulli's principle: high-pressure steam passes through a converging-diverging nozzle, condenses in water to create a vacuum that draws in feed water, and a second converging nozzle then pressurizes that water enough to enter the boiler through a one-way valve. The design is more fuel and water efficient than pumps because it recycles steam and heat back into the boiler. Based on a video by Marc Flint explaining the mechanism. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does a steam injector get water into a locomotive boiler without any moving parts? A steam injector uses Bernoulli's principle in two stages: high-pressure boiler steam passes through a converging-diverging nozzle, dropping pressure and speeding up, then condenses into feed water, creating a vacuum that draws in more water from the tender. That water, now moving fast, passes through a second converging nozzle that raises its pressure high enough to open a one-way valve into the boiler, which sits around 180 PSI. _Curious minds tracing mechanical principles like this can find more engineering deep dives on daily.dev._ ### Who invented the steam injector and why was it created? Henri Griffard invented the steam injector in the 1850s as a replacement for pumps used to feed water into locomotive boilers, since pumps of the era were expensive and required heavy maintenance. His design used fluid dynamics rather than moving mechanical parts, making it more reliable and, because it recycled steam heat back into the boiler, more efficient in both coal and water use. _Readers piecing together the history behind everyday engineering tricks can follow similar stories on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How a Beam Engine Works — An Interactive Guide](https://daily.dev/posts/how-a-beam-engine-works-an-interactive-guide-nor05wqmx) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Coffee Maker Steam Wand Gets A Safe Outlet](https://daily.dev/posts/coffee-maker-steam-wand-gets-a-safe-outlet-7atqstrnz) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Medieval Alhambra’s Pulser Pump And Other Aquatic Marvels](https://daily.dev/posts/medieval-alhambra-s-pulser-pump-and-other-aquatic-marvels-gka7fc1aq) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [It’s Full Steam Ahead For This Motorized Canoe](https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-full-steam-ahead-for-this-motorized-canoe-iwgazl7k5) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#mechanical-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/mechanical-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/historical-hack-henri-griffard-s-steam-injectors-qnwvczuuy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Historical Hack: Henri Griffard’s Steam Injectors","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/historical-hack-henri-griffard-s-steam-injectors-qnwvczuuy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/historical-hack-henri-griffard-s-steam-injectors-qnwvczuuy"},"datePublished":"2026-08-19T17:04:27.017Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T18:09:34.861Z","description":"Explains how Henri Griffard's 1850s steam injector works, a device that pumps water into a high-pressure steam locomotive boiler with no moving parts. 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