Abstract
Among those pioneers of the use of steam for pumping who have found a place in engineering history is Edward Somerset, second Marquis of Worcester (1601-67), whose life was written in 1865 by the civil engineer, Henry Dircks (1806-73). The Marquis lived in troubled times but all his life was interested in mechanics, and in 1663 published his “Century of Inventions”, containing notes in vague and mysterious language on inventions to be tried and perfected. Quite early in life, with the German master mechanic, Caspar Kaltoff, he became connected with the Ordnance Factory founded by Charles I at Vauxhall and on this site later in life he proposed to found a college for training artisans, and erected his famous ‘water commanding engine’, which attracted considerable attention. The interest surrounding the projects and achievements of the Marquis led Mr. W. H. Thorpe to attempt to determine the exact site of the works at Vauxhall. and in a paper read to the Newcomen Society on February 15, he gave an account of his researches and their results. The position of the property was, he said, indicated by a petition dated 1666 presented to Charles II by the Marquis, and the details of the property are described in a report made by the Surveyor General to the Duchy of Cornwall. Further evidence was obtained from Rocque's large-scale “Survey of London” made in 1739-45. For a description of the apparatus for pumping erected at Vauxhall, we are indebted to two foreigners who saw it, but neither of them refers to the use of steam. One of the notes in the “Century”, however, refers to “an admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire”, and it is this that gives the Marquis of Worcester his place among pioneers of the steam engine.
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The Marquis of Worcester at Vauxhall. Nature 131, 267 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131267b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131267b0