The President Pumping Engine, A Victorian Marvel of Water Power

In eighteen seventy-two, a colossal steam engine was installed here to solve an old problem: zinc mining floods. The Lehigh Zinc Company had sunk shafts deep into the earth near Friedensville, Pennsylvania, and groundwater poured in faster than workers could manage. A Cornish-born engineer named John West designed a massive single-cylinder steam engine using the proven Cornish pumping principle, had it built in Philadelphia, and set it to work pulling millions of gallons out of the Ueberroth zinc mine.

The engine ran from eighteen seventy-two until about eighteen ninety-one, with some idle periods, and its power attracted engineers and industrialists from abroad who came specifically to study it. It was said to be named for President Ulysses Grant. By the time it stopped, it had helped make the Lehigh Valley one of the leading zinc-producing regions in the country.