Uma máquina a vapor para a mina de Buarcos

The first steam engine for industrial purposes was introduced into Portugal for pumping water from the interior of the Buarcos coal mine. Its acquisition from Boulton & Watt, Birmingham, England in 1804 was initiated by the Intendant of Mines José Bonifácio and Minister D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho. However, Domingos Vandelli in the 1770s was the first person to suggest an engine should be purchased for the mine. Large and heavy, this “fire pump”, with a power of 50 hp, incorporated all them improvements patented by Watt. After being transported to Lisbon on the ship “Príncipe do Brasil”, the 144 engine parts packed into 26 crates arrived at the mine site, only to remain there, paradoxically, without the machine ever being set up. There were various reasons for this: the early collapse of the galleries located under the sea, which needed pumping; the absence of a specialized English engineer; political instability and the French invasions; and the deterioration of Bonifácio’s relations with the authorities.
In 1814, what was left of the machine’s parts were transferred to the Naval Arsenal, where the engine became ‘lost to history.