Newcomen Atmospheric Engine Installed at Dudley

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen and John Calley erected the first recorded atmospheric steam engine near Dudley Castle in Staffordshire, England, to pump water from a coal mine. The engine used steam to fill a cylinder, then injected cold water to condense the steam, creating a partial vacuum that allowed atmospheric pressure to push the piston downward. This beam-engine design could extract approximately 5,000 gallons per hour from a depth of 153 feet. By the 1730s, over 100 Newcomen engines operated across British and European mines.