10: Falke's engine

The contraption in the workshop didn't look like much, just a barrel, a piston, a cistern, an oven, and a considerable amount of pipe. It clanked and rumbled and shook quite alarmingly. It stank of coal and heated the room almost unbearably. And the steam that periodically blasted from it was enough to scald you, if you were standing in the wrong place. It still needed a great deal of work before it would be marketable.

But it could pump water. It could lift a weight. It could turn a wheel.

It was going to change the world, thought Falke.