Water pump that exploits compression and the condensation of steam produced by a boiler.
The box on which the boiler is mounted contains a water tank connected by a valve to the bottom of the glass container. This is connected to a vertical pipe that rises to the upper lead-lined tank.
The process is started by heating water in the boiler using an alcohol burner and putting a small amount of water into the glass container. The steam produced becomes compressed and is introduced into the glass container where its pressure pushes the water in it upwards. Expanding, the steam condenses in the container, the pressure is lowered and the water from the tank beneath is sucked into the container. The process begins again.
This apparatus, described by the French physicist Jean Antoine Nollet (1700-1770) in his Lessons in Experimental Physics with the name Fire Pump, is a simplified teaching model of the pump invented in 1698 by Thomas Savery (1650-1715) that he called the “Miner’s Friend” because it was used to pump water out of mines.

Device on display.