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Savery, Inventor Steam Engine - 1698 > 
Thomas Savery was an English inventor. Initially interested in naval applications of engineering (he designed an early paddle-wheel), Savery then became interested in pumping machines. On July 2, 1698 he patented an early steam engine, and in 1702 he published details of the machine in the book Miner's Friend, which claimed that it could pump water out of mines. Savery's pump had no piston, but used a combination of atmospheric pressure and steam pressure to raise water. The atmospheric action was limited to lifting a column of water about thirty feet high. This could be increased to about fifty feet by using steam pressure, but the extra stress placed on the boiler by this pressure made it unreliable. The machine was therefore not capable of raising water from the depth of a mine, and the almost only known working versions were used for water-supply pumping in London. However an attempt was made (unsuccessfully) to use one to clear water from a mine at Broadwaters in Wednesbury, then in Staffordshire.
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