Historical Hack: Henri Griffard’s Steam Injectors

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.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/08/19/historical-hack-henri-griffards-steam-injectors. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.