TOTAL WAR WIKI

Steam-Pumped Silver Mine
Category:	Silver
Level:	1
Turns to build:	3
Building cost:	2500
European Indian Middle Eastern
Requires
Silver Mine
Technology
Basic Steam Pump
Enables
Industrial Silver Mining Complex

As soon as a mine delves below the water table, water is a problem and flooding a constant danger.

Pumping or lifting the water allows the miners to reach richer, deeper mineral seams. A steam beam engine, linked to a pump, can lift enough water to make it economically sensible to dig deep shafts.

Historically, Thomas Newcomen was the first to develop a practical “atmospheric” engine for draining deep mines sometime around 1710. His design had problems and was very inefficient, but it worked well enough to be widely adopted where coal was cheap. It was an atmospheric engine because the steam was never under pressure, and relied on a partial vacuum forming when the steam cooled, thus sucking the piston down the cylinder. The need to repeatedly warm and then cool the machine made it wasteful.

James Watt’s beam engine design was altogether more efficient. He had a separate steam condenser, and kept the cylinder at a constant temperature. He was also lucky in his choice of working partner, Matthew Boulton, who proved to be an astute business manager and lobbyist: he even persuaded the British Parliament to extend their patent, guaranteeing them further profit!