ane, as in a
steam crane.

38. _Question._--Who invented the atmospheric engine, and how was it
constructed?

_Answer._--Savory, a mining agent, invented the first method, which he
called an engine, of drawing water up from a well by means of a vacuum
which he happened accidentally to discover a method to create, and the
pressure of the atmospheric combined with it. He procured a real steam
boiler with a safety valve and gauge cocks and erected two vessels in
which to create a vacuum; a suction pipe from the bottom of each vessel
led down into a well beneath the vessels, and a valve that opened
upwards was on the end of each pipe. When about to start work, steam
from the boiler was turned into one of the vessels, and kept on until it
was as hot as the boiler itself, while a drain cock was kept open the
while, and when air and water had been forced out of the vessel steam
was shut off, and water from a tank above the vessel was allowed to flow
on it, which soon made a vacuum inside the vessel, and water was sucked
up through the valves opening upwards and delivered into a tank placed
for the purpose. While this performance was in progress, the other
vessel was being charged with steam to repeat the performance, etc. This
is the extent as far as I know of Savory's claim to be the inventor of
the atmospheric engine.

39. _Question._--Who was the real inventor then?

_Answer._--Newcomen and his partner Cawly adopted a working beam, that
is, a beam working on a centre or trunnion. At one end of the beam was
the pump, at the other was an iron cylinder with an iron piston in it;
both ends of the beam were arched or sexton-shaped, and had a chain on
each, one connected to the pump rod, the other to the piston rod. When
about to start work, the piston being up near the top of the cylinder,
steam was let in under it and a jet of water was let in which soon
condensed the steam and created a vacuum within the cylinder, and the
piston was drawn down to the bottom and the pump drawn up with its load
of water; and a counter weight was attached to the pump-rod to always
bring the piston to the top of the cylinder after each descent. This is
a very brief description of this atmospheric engine; there were now only
two cocks to open and close--the steam cock and water cock, and the
engine only required a boy for this purpose, but the boy himself added a
share in this engine. In order to have a relief from the monotony of
opening