On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:25:57 +0000 (UTC), Andy Breen
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:15:30 +0100, Charles Ellson wrote:

On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 08:48:47 -0700 (PDT), harry
wrote:

On Jul 17, 4:23*pm, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Sat, 16 Jul 2011 23:28:13 -0700 (PDT), harry
wrote:

On Jul 16, 9:27*pm, Andy Dingley wrote:
On Jul 16, 7:07*pm, harry wrote:

The staem was used to flush air out of the cylinders.

Er no, the air was displaced by the steam being fed into the cylinder.
Get your intentions and consequences in the right order.

So where exactly is the diffence?

"Flushing" is generally the deliberate rather than consequential purging
of a substance from somewhere. If you are referring to the animation at
the top of the above Wonkypaedia article then no such process is shown
but if any does take place then it will (except at startup) be "expired"
steam that is flushed rather than air.

Opening a valve to admit steam to the cylinder seems deliberate
enough to me.

It's fairly clear from his own writings that Mr Savery was of the same
opinion:

"Then skrew in the faid pipes again as tight as possible. Then lightthe
fire at B No.1. When the water in L boyles, the handle of the regulator
mark'd Z, must be thrust from you as far as it will go, which makes all
the steam rifting from the water in L, pass with irriftible force through
O No.1 into P No.1 pushing out all the air before it, through the clack
R No.1 making a noise as it goes."

'The Miner's Friend, or, An Engine To Raise Water By Fire', Thomas
Savery, S. Crouch, 1702, available on-line at:

http://library.thinkquest.org/C00601...am%2Fsavery%2F

To me, that implies a very deliberate use of the steam to flush out the
air in the working vessel..

That device looks distinctly different to the one in the Wikipaedia
article. Rather than using a piston it seems to use alternative
positive and negative pressure (relative to atmosphere) in a vessel
with valves arranged so that water is sucked in from below then
discharged up to the surface. As often occurs, older descriptions can
be somewhat simplistic; the purpose is clearly to propel water while
any propulsion of air is consequential to some being present but not
necessary for the ongoing process.