It was built around 1722 by English engineer and designer Isaac Potter and Austrian architect Josef Emmanuel Fischer von Erlach to pump water from a local mine.
The car was found in the Althandel mine in the city of Nova Banya. According to archaeologist Matej Styk from the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra, in two weeks it was possible to fully reveal the entire area of the machine room measuring approximately eight by fourteen meters, the remains of which were hidden under a layer of earth at a depth of 30-40 centimeters.
The design of the atmospheric steam engine built by Potter in Slovakia was developed by the English inventor Thomas Newcomen, but it went down in history not only as Newcomen's, but also as a “Potter's fire engine”. For several years, Potter himself drove the machine, but the mine did not go out and therefore it was disabled. However, economic activity in this place continued for the next hundred years - inside the turbine hall, archaeologists discovered parts of a later building, which apparently had a different purpose.
The local mining association believes that the remains of the steam engine should be made available to the public and is proposing an open-air museum on the site. In addition, the association has plans to rebuild the turbine building and hall and sharpen a replica of the steam engine.
