ABSTRACT
In the mining of iron ore at Mitterberg in the Tyrol between 1600 and 400 bc, drainage was achieved by excavating a drainage adit into the hillside below the mine workings. In Roman days, the empire was so extensive that metal production became an important state activity. There were many mines that could not be drained by adits. In 1702, Thomas Savery issued a pamphlet describing a machine to raise water from the Cornish tin mines. The principle on which his patent was based involved the condensation of steam in closed vessels to produce vacuum effects and pressure differences which were translated into a sucking action. Cornish engineers next concentrated on efforts to improve the Newcomen engine in order to reduce coal consumption. With the advent of electricity, and with much smaller multiple plunger pumps and more recently developed multi-stage centrifugal pumps, all driven by electric motors, tremendous improvements in mine drainage have been made.
