![]() ![]() Today the Savery Company in the United Kingdom continues to manufacture an array of electro-hydraulic systems. ![]() The patent expired in 1733, four years after Newcomen’s death (Savery died in 1717). So Newcomen had little choice but to go into business with him, marketing his own superior design under Savery’s patent. Savery held such a broad patent on the steam engine - namely the use of surface condensation - that he was listed as co-inventor on the atmospheric steam engine patent, even though Newcomen’s engine showed vastly improved performance, significant mechanical differences, had no need for steam pressure, and used a vacuum differently. He and John Calley built a working prototype in 1712 and used it to pump out a mineshaft flooded with water. Exposure to cold water then caused the steam to condense and created a vacuum inside the cylinder, and the resulting pressure drove a piston. Newcomen invented an atmospheric steam engine that used (as the name implies) atmospheric pressure to pump steam into a cylinder. He let the blacksmith forge a copy of the machine for his own backyard research. One such person was a blacksmith named Thomas Newcomen, whom Savery had hired to forge his own engine. Still, Savery’s design inspired later engineers to develop improved versions. It also consumed too much fuel to make it economically viable for mining applications. The imperfect sealing meant the engines were prone to exploding. All the parts were made from brass, copper, and bronze, pieced together from casts or molded parts and then soldered or riveted together. However, it was not the most efficient engine for lifting water, in part because the technology did not yet exist to machine tightly sealed joints. Steam pressure would then force the water upwards with the help of a few simple valves to control the pumping. The device required no heavy moving parts, relying on a vacuum to pull water into a separate container. After exhibiting his engine at Hampton Court for King William III, he was granted his patent for “a new invention for raising of water, and occasional motion to all sorts of mill works, by the important force of fire, which will be of great use for draining of mines … ” That original 14-year patent received a 21-year extension by British Parliament in 1699 as part of the “Fire Engine Act.”Īn elated Savery printed up a prospectus in 1702, entitled The Miner’s Friend, and sent it to managers of mines across England, expecting an influx of new customers, but while his steam pump was useful for supplying water to estates and country houses, it was not immediately embraced by the mining industry. Savery filed a patent for his first design for a “fire engine” on July 2, 1698, and soon after presented a working model to the Royal Society of London. ![]() He certainly believed such a contraption could be useful in keeping mines and pits from flooding, especially those in the Cornwall region. ![]() Still, the designs were strikingly similar. Legend has it that he bought up as many copies as he could find and burned them to solidify his own patent claims, but most historians do not find the story credible. Young Savery may have read Somerset’s book on the subject. His 1655 treatise, The Century of Inventions, included a description of a “water-commanding engine” constructed from the barrel of a cannon, intended for use in irrigation. Earlier thinkers had speculated about such a contraption, most notably Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, a nobleman with a keen interest in invention. Savery was also interested in steam engines. It was a haughty Navy surveyor named Edmund Dummer who sank the young inventor’s hopes, asking why it is that “interloping people, that have no concern with us, pretend to contrive or invent things for us?” Despite a successful demonstration with a small paddleboat on the Thames River, the British Navy declined to adopt the invention for its own vessels. Another of his early inventions was an array of paddlewheels to propel sea vessels. He was especially interested in math and mechanics, with a penchant for invention, including building a clock for the Savery family. It fell to an English inventor and engineer named Thomas Savery to build the first working prototype of “an engine to raise water by fire.”īorn to relative privilege in 1650, Savery received an excellent education and grew up to be a military engineer. This was typically done by mounting a series of buckets on a pulley system driven by horses - a very slow and costly process. July 2, 1698: Thomas Savery Patents an Early Steam EngineĪs England hovered on the brink of the Industrial Revolution in the late 17th century, a major challenge was how to remove excess water from the mines. ![]()
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