Water-returning engine

A water-returning engine was an early form of stationary steam engine, developed at the start of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 18th century. The first beam engines did not generate power by rotating a shaft but were developed as water pumps, mostly for draining mines. By coupling this pump with a water wheel, they could be used to drive machinery.

The steam engine was not, as widely held, the cause of the Industrial Revolution, but rather arose as a result of it. The primary power source of the Revolution, certainly in the 18th century, was the water wheel, not the steam engine.

The origins of the water-returning engine begin with blowing engines used to provide the draught for blast furnaces and smelters. Although early furnaces may have been powered by human- or animal-powered bellows, once the Industrial Revolution began the new enlarged furnaces were blown by water wheel-powered blowing houses.

Smelters are most economically located near the source of their ore, which may not have suitable water power available nearby. There is also the risk of drought interrupting the water supply, or of expanding demand for the furnace outstripping the available water capacity. In 1754 one furnace in the Weald was so drought-stricken that its manager considered hiring workmen to turn the wheel as a treadmill.

As well as an inability to work in periods of drought, the amount of water available could also vary the power of machinery powered by it. The amount and type of work to be carried out by heavy industries could be influenced by the seasonal availability of water. In 1785 Kirkstall Forge near Leeds wrote to a customer, 'It will be convenient for us just now to roll a few tons because we have a full supply of water—and we cannot manufacture thin plate so well when our water is short.'

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