Podrovnoe Opisanīe Parovoĭ Mashiny

An early Russian technical book describing an atmospheric steam engine for pumping water. The title indicates that it is based upon the one devised by the Englishman T. Savery. Thomas Savery (1650?-1715), the English military engineer, patented the first commercially successful atmospheric steam engine in 1698. This book was published by the Army Technical Academy. Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Russian Army continued to play a role in encouraging technical innovations (as well as in harboring political liberals). The officers who had spent some years in Western Europe were keen on reforming and modernizing the Russian economy, and this book introduces one of the technologies required to achieve that goal.