. The conquest of nature. shaped like an egg, with a tubeor pipe at the bottom, which descended to the placefrom which the water was to be drawn, and anotherat the top, which ascended to the place to which it wasto be elevated. This oval vessel was filled with steamsupplied from a boiler, by which the atmospheric airwas first blown out of it. When the air was thus expelledand nothing but pure steam left in the vessel, the com-munication with the boiler was cut off, and cold waterpoured on the external surface. The steam within wasthus condensed and a vacuum produced, and the waterdrawn up from
. The conquest of nature. shaped like an egg, with a tubeor pipe at the bottom, which descended to the placefrom which the water was to be drawn, and anotherat the top, which ascended to the place to which it wasto be elevated. This oval vessel was filled with steamsupplied from a boiler, by which the atmospheric airwas first blown out of it. When the air was thus expelledand nothing but pure steam left in the vessel, the com-munication with the boiler was cut off, and cold waterpoured on the external surface. The steam within wasthus condensed and a vacuum produced, and the waterdrawn up from below in the usual way by suction. Theoval vessel was thus filled with water; a cock placed atthe bottom of the lower pipe was then closed, and steamwas introduced from the boiler into the oval vessel abovethe surface of the water. This steam being of highpressure, forced the water up the ascending tube, fromthe top of which it was discharged, and the oval vesselbeing thus refilled A^n[th steam, the vacuum was again [86]. THOMAS SAVERYS STEAM ENGINE. The principle involved is that of the expansion of steam exerting a propulsiveforce and its subsequent condensation to produce a vacuum. These are the princi-ples employed in the modern steam engine, but the only use to which they were putin Saverys engine was the elevation of water by suction. CAPTIVE MOLECULES produced by condensation, and the same process wasrepeated. By using two oval steam vessels, which wouldact alternately—one drawing water from below, whilethe other was forcing it upwards, an uninterrupteddischarge of water was produced. Owing to the dangerof explosion, from the high pressure of the steamwhich was used, and from the enormous waste of heatby unnecessary condensation, these engines soon fellinto disuse. This description makes it obvious that Savery hadthe clearest conception of the production of a vacuumby the condensation of steam, and of the utiHzationof the suction thus established (which suction, as we
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