An engine for removing water from a mine
Date
20 January 1686
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p1
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 294mm
width (page): 180mm
width (page): 180mm
Subject
Description
This is an improvement of the engine to raise water from a mine that was already suggested by Denis Papin and printed in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 15, no. 178 (1685), pp. 1274-78. Papin suggests that it 'may not only be usefull for to raise water out of a mine by the strength of a River far distant from it, but it may by the same means raise the oare [ore] itself and so save the labour of many Men that are imployd for that work'.
Transcription
Although I don't question but the way for raising water publisht in the Transactions no. 178 might be of a good use on several occasions, I have been thinking how to work upon the principle by another way which I esteeme so much the more because this new way may not only be usefull for to raise water out of a mine by the strength of a River far distant from it, but it may by the same means raise the oare [ore] itself and so save the labour of many Men that re imployd for that work.
AA is a wheel set upon the aperture of a Mine, so that a rope BBB pulling over the said wheel may alternatively let into the said mine two buckets like C tied at the two ends of the rope:so that when one goeth down the other goeth up carrying either water, oare [ore], or any other materials we have a mind to raise. The said wheel should be fixed upon Axis DD and upon the same Axis two ropes EE, FF should be wound about in such a manner that two plugs G and H tied at the lower ends of the laid ropes might always go the one upwards, and the other downwards by the turning of the Axis DDD....
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
AA is a wheel set upon the aperture of a Mine, so that a rope BBB pulling over the said wheel may alternatively let into the said mine two buckets like C tied at the two ends of the rope:so that when one goeth down the other goeth up carrying either water, oare [ore], or any other materials we have a mind to raise. The said wheel should be fixed upon Axis DD and upon the same Axis two ropes EE, FF should be wound about in such a manner that two plugs G and H tied at the lower ends of the laid ropes might always go the one upwards, and the other downwards by the turning of the Axis DDD....
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 13 January 1687, 'Dr. Papin read a paper of his, containing an account of the contrivance of his water-engine for circulating water; which was ordered to be registered' (Birch 4:452).
20 January 1687, ‘Dr. Papin read a farther discourse concerning his engine, that raises and circulates water’ (ibid.).
The account is registered with the legend but without the image at RBO/6/288.
20 January 1687, ‘Dr. Papin read a farther discourse concerning his engine, that raises and circulates water’ (ibid.).
The account is registered with the legend but without the image at RBO/6/288.
Related fellows
Denis Papin (1647, French) , Natural philosopher
Associated place