In 1731 Lowther bought the Newcomen Atmospheric steam engine to pump water from his deepening mine. It was housed in in a building close to the pit head.
The pump could raise thousands of gallons a day from the tunnels and enabled the mine to extend further under the sea bed Newcomen engines were reliable and safe (working at low pressures ) and coal from the mine was readily available to heat the boilers. In 1732 a bigger boiler was added and the two pumps worked in tandem,
John Spedding, the agent for Sir James Lowther, wrote in January that year
“my brother(Carlisle Spedding) hopes to get the new engine completed in a few days and to apply it to work in the two uppermost lifts of pumps while the old engine raises the water from thence to the top in the two uppermost lifts.
“my brother(Carlisle Spedding) hopes to get the new engine completed in a few days and to apply it to work in the two uppermost lifts of pumps while the old engine raises the water from thence to the top in the two uppermost lifts.
Two engines by this means will raise more than the feed and in a short time empty all the places below the pit that are quite full of water and within a few inches or drowning out the haggers [Miners]”
Finally by 1782 two 42” Newcomen Atmospheric engines pumped 15,000 gallons of water a day from Saltom’s tunnels. After Saltom stopped drawing coal, the pumps continued work as newer pits stretched out further under the sea from Whitehaven’s cliffs.
