section_path: Mechanical devices/Industrial machines
section_name: Industrial machines
paragraph_text: Industrial machines
  
  Denis Papin was best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the steam engine. The first working steam engine was patented in 1698 by the English inventor Thomas Savery, as a "...new invention for raising of water and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill work by the impellent force of fire, which will be of great use and advantage for drayning mines, serveing townes with water, and for the working of all sorts of mills where they have not the benefitt of water nor constant windes." The invention was demonstrated to the Royal Society on 14 June 1699, and the machine was described by Savery in his book The Miner's Friend; or, An Engine to Raise Water by Fire (1702), in which he claimed that it could pump water out of mines. Thomas Newcomen perfected the practical steam engine for pumping water, the Newcomen steam engine. Consequently, Newcomen can be regarded as a forefather of the Industrial Revolution.
  
  Abraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations of the Darby family who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing high-grade iron in a blast furnace fueled by coke rather than charcoal. This was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution.