Note 27 — Chapter III · Captain Savery—His Fire-engine.

The absurd story is told by Dr. Desaguliers (‘Experimental Philosophy,’ ii. 465) that Savery, having read the Marquis’s book, “was the first to put in practice the raising of water by fire, which he proposed for the draining of mines;” and having copied the Marquis’s engine, “the better to conceal the matter, bought up all the Marquis of Worcester’s books that he could purchase in Paternoster-row and elsewhere, and burned ’em in the presence of the gentleman, his friend, who told me this!” It need scarcely be said that it was very unlikely that Savery should have attempted thus to conceal an invention recorded in a printed book which had been in circulation for more than forty years.