ABSTRACT
Many minds, scientific and practical, during the seventeenth century, were preoccupied with the problem of finding improved means of raising water from mines, and to a less extent for domestic purposes and irrigation. The field of research for such a power had been narrowed down to two avenues: the combustion of fuel to raise steam from water to a pressure above that of the atmosphere; and the explosion of small quantities of gunpowder to obtain like pressures. The solution of the problem was taken by Thomas Savery, who was the first to produce a workable apparatus for raising water. This chapter briefly explains the principle upon which Savery’s apparatus work. Captain Savery, having read the Marquis of Worcester’s Book, was the first who put in Practice the raising Water by Fire, which he proposed for the draining of Mines.
