Created on 2025.10.23

The origin and history of valves

Valves have a long and fascinating history—did you know how they originated? Broadly speaking, thousands of years ago during the Warring States period, ancient people were already using valve-like devices in their production processes. Isn't that remarkably far back? For modern professionals in the pump and valve industry, briefly reviewing the origin and development of valves is not only meaningful but also intriguing. After reading this, you may feel a deep sense of pride and honor as someone in the valve industry, along with a greater sense of responsibility and commitment toward its future.

When it comes to valves, many people are probably familiar with them. Indeed, valves touch our daily lives in countless ways. Every time we turn on a faucet to get a drink or open a fire hydrant to irrigate farmland, we interact with valves. Behind the complex networks of pipelines, various valves stand guard, ensuring smooth operation. The evolution of valves is closely tied to the advancement of industrial production.

In ancient times, people used large stones or tree trunks to control or redirect the flow of rivers and streams. As early as the late Warring States period, Li Bing, the governor of Shu Prefecture in the State of Qin, dug brine wells on the Chengdu Plain. To extract brine, they used slender bamboo tubes as suction cylinders. A leather flap valve—operating as a check valve—was installed at the bottom of the tube to open and close automatically, preventing leakage. A single tube could draw several dou (an ancient Chinese unit) of brine. A large wooden frame erected above the well used windlasses and capstans to lift the brine to the surface. The bamboo cylinder had a wooden plunger valve inserted at one end to prevent leakage, allowing it to be lowered into the well to draw brine for salt production. Weren’t the ancients incredibly ingenious?

Ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations also developed primitive types of valves for agricultural irrigation. However, it is widely acknowledged that the ancient Romans created a relatively sophisticated water supply system for crop irrigation, employing plug valves and piston valves, as well as check valves to prevent backflow.

During the Renaissance, the artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci incorporated valves into his designs for canals, irrigation systems, and other large-scale hydraulic projects. Many of his technical concepts are still in practical use today. You might have previously known Da Vinci only as a great painter, but did you realize he also made significant contributions to valve technology?

Later, with advancements in metallurgy and hydraulic machinery in Europe, demands for more reliable valves increased. This led to the creation of copper and aluminum plug valves, marking the transition of valves into the era of metal construction.

The modern history of the valve industry has evolved alongside the Industrial Revolution, advancing as the revolution deepened. In 1705, Newcomen invented the first industrial steam engine, which introduced the need to control steam engine operations. In 1769, Watt improved the steam engine, officially ushering valves into the field of mechanical industry. Many types of valves—such as plug valves, safety valves, check valves, and butterfly valves—were widely adopted on steam engines. Watt’s invention marked the beginning of large-scale valve applications.

From the 18th to the 19th century, the rapid expansion of steam engines across industries such as mining, metallurgy, textiles, and machinery manufacturing led to increasing demands for both the quantity and quality of valves, resulting in the emergence of slide valves. Watt also invented the first speed governor, after which the control of fluid flow gradually gained greater attention. Subsequently, the appearance of the screw-stemmed globe valve and the wedge-type gate valve with trapezoidal threaded stem represented a major breakthrough in valve development. The introduction of these two valve types not only met the growing pressure and temperature requirements across industries at the time, but also began to satisfy the need for flow regulation.

Theoretically, the first true valve in history should be the ball valve or spherical plug valve, with designs traceable to the work of John Wallen and John Charpmen in the 19th century—although they were not put into production at the time. After World War II, valve development was driven by government initiatives; the U.S. Navy was an early advocate of James Bury's valves for use in submarines. As a result, a series of new research, trials, and innovations in valve technology emerged around specific application scenarios, with valve technology undergoing significant advancements amidst the demands of wartime.

Due to the need for post-war reconstruction in many countries, coupled with the development of various special materials—such as polymeric materials, smooth materials, stainless steel, and cobalt-based hard alloys—outdated plug valves and butterfly valves found renewed applications. Ball valves and diaphragm valves, evolved from plug valves, rapidly developed during this period. Globe valves, gate valves, and other valve types increased in variety and improved in quality, gradually establishing the valve manufacturing industry as an important sector within the mechanical industry.

During the 1960s, developed industrialized nations successively entered periods of economic prosperity. Products from former West Germany, Japan, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom were eager to enter the international market, and valve exports were driven by the export of complete sets of mechanical equipment.

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, former colonial countries gained independence one after another, urgently seeking to develop national industries and importing large quantities of equipment—including valves—while oil-producing countries heavily invested in the high-profit oil industry due to the oil crisis. These factors collectively brought about a period of rapid growth in international valve production, trade, and development, further propelling the advancement of the valve industry.

China's valve manufacturing industry started relatively late. In the 1960s, efforts began to develop products such as single-seat and double-seat valves, primarily through imitation of former Soviet Union designs. Due to backward machinery industry and low machining precision, these products suffered from high leakage rates, yet were still sufficient for the general control requirements of industrial processes at that time.

Starting in the 1970s, as industrial production scales expanded and process control requirements increased, some existing control valves no longer met the needs—such as control under high pressure, high pressure drop, cryogenic or high-temperature conditions, and corrosive media. To address this, large petrochemical enterprises began importing not only equipment but also advanced control valves, including balanced-core cage valves and eccentric rotary valves, which provided clear development directions for domestic manufacturers. As a result, by the late 1970s, several valve manufacturers had already started to replicate products like the eccentric rotary valve.

Starting from the 1980s, with the implementation of China's reform and opening-up policy, key enterprises were organized to introduce advanced technologies and machining equipment from foreign counterparts in valve design and manufacturing processes. This significantly accelerated the advancement of China's valve manufacturing technology and product quality. For instance, various types of cage valves and eccentric rotary valves were developed, and research began on compact control valves. Concurrently, with the progress of large-scale industrial projects such as power stations, different types of actuators—including electro-hydraulic and long-stroke actuators—were developed to meet control requirements involving high thrust, high torque, and extended travel. In the 1990s, following the introduction and absorption of foreign advanced technologies, China's control valve industry began to grow rapidly, filling gaps in special industrial controls and elevating the overall industrial standard, thus narrowing the gap with international levels. Currently, leading domestic valve manufacturers are capable of designing and producing various valves in accordance with international standards such as ISO, DIN (German), and AWWA (American). Some manufacturers' products have reached internationally advanced levels.