Steam engine with no condenser, horizontal cylinder. The first recorded rudimentary steam engine was the aeolipile described by Heron of Alexandria in the 1st century AD. Starting in the 12th century, a number of steam-powered devices were experimented with or proposed. In 1712 Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine became the first commercially successful engine using the principle of the piston and cylinder, which was the fundamental type steam engine used until the early 20th century. During the industrial revolution, steam engines started to replace water and wind power, and eventually became the dominant source of power in the late 19th century and remaining so into the early decades of the 20th century, when the more efficient steam turbine and the internal combustion engine resulted in the rapid replacement of the steam engines.