Thomas Savery
Thomas Savery was born around 1650 at the manor house of Shilstone, near Modbury in Devon. He received a solid education that prepared him for military engineering work. By 1702 he had risen to the rank of captain within the English military engineering corps. His free time was spent performing experiments in mechanics rather than resting from duty. In 1696 he took out a patent for a machine designed to polish glass or marble. He also patented a method for rowing ships with greater ease using paddle-wheels driven by a capstan. The Admiralty dismissed this naval invention following a negative report by Edmund Dummer, the Surveyor of the Navy. Savery worked for the Sick and Hurt Commissioners contracting medicines to the Navy Stock Company. This role connected him with the Society of Apothecaries and took him to Dartmouth in Devon. It is likely there that he first met Thomas Newcomen.
On the 2nd of July 1698 Savery patented a steam-powered pump which he called an engine to raise water by fire. Contemporary usage defined the word engine as any device or contrivance regardless of its complexity. He demonstrated it to the Royal Society on the 14th of June 1699. The original patent document contained no illustrations or written description of the mechanism. In 1702 Savery described the machine in his book titled The Miner's Friend. He claimed the device could successfully pump water out of mines. The system operated without a piston or moving parts except for taps. Steam was raised in a boiler before being admitted into one of the working vessels. The steam blew out through a downpipe into the water waiting to be raised. When the vessel became hot and full of steam the tap between the boiler and vessel shut off. Cooling the outside of the vessel caused the internal steam to condense. This created a partial vacuum allowing atmospheric pressure to push water up the downpipe until the vessel filled completely.
Savery's pump suffered from four serious problems that limited its practical use. Every time water entered the working vessel much heat wasted itself warming up the liquid being pumped. The next stage required high-pressure steam to force water upward against gravity. Soldered joints barely withstood this pressure and needed frequent repair. Practical safety considerations meant deep mines required a series of moderate-pressure pumps rather than one single unit. Water pushed up by atmospheric pressure had to stay within about thirty-three feet of the water level. Operators had to install and maintain these machines far down in dark mines across England. A newspaper report from March 1702 announced Savery's pumps were ready for public viewing at his workhouse in Salisbury Court London. One pump set up at York Buildings produced steam eight or ten times stronger than common air. It blew open the machine's joints forcing Savery to solder them with spelter. Another pump built for Hampton Court worked alongside one at Campden House in Kensington operating for eighteen years.
Savery's original patent of July 1698 gave fourteen years protection before expiring. Parliament passed an Act the following year extending his protection for another twenty-one years. This legislation became known as the Fire Engine Act. The act covered all pumps that raised water using fire power. The architect James Smith of Whitehill acquired rights to use Savery's pump in Scotland. He entered into an agreement with the inventor in 1699. In 1701 he secured a patent from the Parliament of Scotland modeled on the English grant. Smith claimed to have modified the machine to pump from a depth of eighty-four feet. In England Savery's patent forced Thomas Newcomen to go into partnership with him. By 1712 arrangements developed between the two men to create Newcomen's more advanced design. They marketed this new engine under Savery's existing patent adding water tanks and pump rods. Newcomen's engine worked purely by atmospheric pressure avoiding dangers of high-pressure steam. It used the piston concept invented in 1690 by the Frenchman Denis Papin.
A few Savery pumps were tried in mines but met with limited success. An unsuccessful attempt cleared water from a pool called Broad Waters in Wednesbury then in Staffordshire. A sudden eruption of water had occurred there some years prior. The pump could not be brought to answer the demands placed upon it. The quantity of steam raised was so great it rent the whole machine to pieces. The steam pump was laid aside and the scheme for raising water dropped as impracticable. Another pump proposed in 1706 by George Sparrow at Newbold near Chesterfield never materialized. Landowners struggled to obtain neighbor consent for underground channels to drain coal. It is possible a steam pump was tried at Wheal Vor a copper mine in Cornwall. The Savery steam pump cost much less than the Newcomen engine. A two- to four-horsepower Savery pump cost between one hundred fifty and two hundred pounds. Smaller sizes down to one horsepower remained available for purchase. Newcomen engines were larger and significantly more expensive due to inefficiency in small sizes.
After his death on the 15th of May 1715 Savery's patent vested in a company named The Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire. This company issued licenses to others for building and operating Newcomen engines. They charged up to four hundred twenty pounds per year in patent royalties. One colliery paid the Proprietors two hundred pounds annually plus half their net profits. These payments covered services keeping the engine running smoothly. The Fire Engine Act did not expire until 1733 four years after Newcomen died. Several later pumping systems may be based directly on Savery's original design. The twin-chamber pulsometer steam pump became a successful development of his work. Savery-type pumps continued to be produced well into the late eighteenth century. Isaac Newton asked Denis Papin to work with Savery when Papin returned to London in 1707. Savery worked five years with Papin but never gave credit or revenue to the French scientist.
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Common questions
When was Thomas Savery born and where did he live?
Thomas Savery was born around 1650 at the manor house of Shilstone near Modbury in Devon. He received a solid education that prepared him for military engineering work.
What invention did Thomas Savery patent on the 2nd of July 1698?
On the 2nd of July 1698 Thomas Savery patented a steam-powered pump which he called an engine to raise water by fire. The original patent document contained no illustrations or written description of the mechanism.
Why did Thomas Savery's steam pumps fail in some mines?
Savery's pump suffered from four serious problems that limited its practical use including heat waste and high-pressure steam requirements. Soldered joints barely withstood this pressure and needed frequent repair while atmospheric pressure could only push water up about thirty-three feet.
How long did Parliament extend Thomas Savery's patent protection?
Parliament passed an Act the following year extending his protection for another twenty-one years after his original fourteen-year term expired. This legislation became known as the Fire Engine Act and covered all pumps that raised water using fire power.
When did Thomas Savery die and what happened to his patent afterward?
Thomas Savery died on the 15th of May 1715 and his patent vested in a company named The Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire. This company issued licenses to others for building and operating Newcomen engines and charged up to four hundred twenty pounds per year in patent royalties.