Note: Scroll down to the very bottom for the tl;dr version.
By the beginning of the industrial revolution, most of the so-called "easy" coal had been depleted from the great coal fields of Britain. This coal was near to the surface, or exposed, and therefore easy to mine. There was still mineral resources in plenty deeper below the surface, but the majority of this was unavailable to the miners of the early 1700s because of one simple obstacle: The water table. Tunnels dug below the water table would, of course, fill up with water, rendering coal and iron deposits under the water table unfeasibly difficult to extract in any great quantities. This problem was neatly solved by the invention the steam engine; The earliest designs condensed steam in a chamber, which created a partial vacuum which would then suck water out of a mine or other vessel. These first pumps were dreadfully inefficient, required a great deal of maintenance, and could only operate a few feet above the level of the water it was to pump up. This particular design was built by one Thomas Savery and was patented in the year 1698; many consider it the first modern steam engine, but by no means the first practical one. By 1712 an improved design utilizing moving pistons was created; this was a much more practical design, and the engine found wide use, mainly in pumping water out of mines.
The purpose of this brief history lesson was to give you some background information on what I am about to suggest as an improvement to our game minecraft; Yes, you guessed it. A simple steam pump for pumping water.
But what will it do, and why should we have them in minecraft?
It's simple. Pumping water.
A good while back me and a friend in an SMP server attempted to build an underwater glass dome. We started by constructing a large "box" in the water around the place where we were to construct our dome; It was only after finishing the box that we realized we had no good way to drain the water out. We eventually discovered that filling the area with sand and gravel worked well enough; this, of course, is wretchedly inefficient as it requires massive amounts of gravel and/or sand and also requires the player to remove all of the gravel/sand when the area is completely filled by it. The purpose of this proposed pump is to provide a logical, interesting and somewhat efficient way to remove water from a specific area.
Presumably, in the distant future Notch will revise the current flawed water physics system. The reason I say it is flawed is because, for example, a few buckets of water deposited in a small basin by a player can easily become an infinitely plentiful source of water; Water source blocks in close proximity to another, when removed, will regenerate themselves. If, presumably, this issue is addressed, our Steam Pumps will have twice the amount of purpose: Not only removing water from a specific area, but really moving it.
In this way, you could have a somewhat intricate system of pumps and pipes to transport fresh water from a nearby lake into a cistern located underneath your house, which could be used to feed fountains, pools, and all manner of watery devices. The need for a revised water system enhances this by making the pump-system necessary to maintain a constant amount of water, if it is indeed being used up by the player. Theoretically, with a revised water system, water being input into a basin will actually fill it, instead of just spilling down into is and being somehow magically absorbed by the floor.
Cool story, but how do you propose this to work?
Well, my idea was of some gears and iron bars and rods and bits of leather and whatall to be combined in some intricate manner to produce a pump assembly, which, when coupled with a boiler and a furnace could be connected to pipes, and be used to pump water. The boiler could presumably be constructed similar to how a chest or a furnace is made out of wood and stone; except out of iron. The boiler would be a new, independently placed block; when a furnace is placed directly under a boiler, and the boiler is in direct contact with the pump-assembly block, the boiler can be fed with water; and the furnace can be fed with any type of fuel to begin the process.
Our pipes would presumably be iron, and independently placed blocks; Similar to how tracks are places, pipes would connect to the next block in line and form a continuous chain. When there are two different pipes attached to the pump, the boiler has water, and the furnace is on, the pumping process may begin. The pump will attempt to pump water from one end of the pipe to the other; If no water is at the end of the pipe the pump is trying to pump it from, nothing will happen. The player could switch which direction the pump is pumping; Water would travel from B to A instead of A to B. This function could presumably be controllable via redstone.
Pumps would be difficult to construct, and would require large amounts of rarer resources.
We already have steam engines in the form of powered minecarts, and historically people have experimented with steam pumps since the 1650s, so why not in minecraft?
Please note that many specific details here are very theoretical; I expect many of the finer points to be decided by Notch and the mojang team, such as the specific method of crafting the pump-assembly. tl;dr version:
Steam pumps made out of four separate block-assemblies (Pump, boiler, pipes and furnace) would be used to remove water from a certain area and pump it to another. This could be used to drain areas easily, and to fill up other areas if and when Notch revises the current water physics system.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gib zu mir etwas fußbodenbelag unter diesen fetten, fließenden Sofa.
Agreed, bucket are for casuals. Now, this helps support the idea of renewable resources like geothermal energy too.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I am just a guy looking for good suggestions that are original, creative, and match the theme of Mine-craft. I have some mob ideas that I need help forming which is a community project.
Agreed, bucket are for casuals. Now, this helps support the idea of renewable resources like geothermal energy too.
Now we're talking. Geothermal energy is already practical in the form of lava buckets for smelting stuff; Now it can be even more practical for pumping water!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gib zu mir etwas fußbodenbelag unter diesen fetten, fließenden Sofa.
By the beginning of the industrial revolution, most of the so-called "easy" coal had been depleted from the great coal fields of Britain. This coal was near to the surface, or exposed, and therefore easy to mine. There was still mineral resources in plenty deeper below the surface, but the majority of this was unavailable to the miners of the early 1700s because of one simple obstacle: The water table. Tunnels dug below the water table would, of course, fill up with water, rendering coal and iron deposits under the water table unfeasibly difficult to extract in any great quantities. This problem was neatly solved by the invention the steam engine; The earliest designs condensed steam in a chamber, which created a partial vacuum which would then suck water out of a mine or other vessel. These first pumps were dreadfully inefficient, required a great deal of maintenance, and could only operate a few feet above the level of the water it was to pump up. This particular design was built by one Thomas Savery and was patented in the year 1698; many consider it the first modern steam engine, but by no means the first practical one. By 1712 an improved design utilizing moving pistons was created; this was a much more practical design, and the engine found wide use, mainly in pumping water out of mines.
The purpose of this brief history lesson was to give you some background information on what I am about to suggest as an improvement to our game minecraft; Yes, you guessed it. A simple steam pump for pumping water.
But what will it do, and why should we have them in minecraft?
It's simple. Pumping water.
A good while back me and a friend in an SMP server attempted to build an underwater glass dome. We started by constructing a large "box" in the water around the place where we were to construct our dome; It was only after finishing the box that we realized we had no good way to drain the water out. We eventually discovered that filling the area with sand and gravel worked well enough; this, of course, is wretchedly inefficient as it requires massive amounts of gravel and/or sand and also requires the player to remove all of the gravel/sand when the area is completely filled by it. The purpose of this proposed pump is to provide a logical, interesting and somewhat efficient way to remove water from a specific area.
Presumably, in the distant future Notch will revise the current flawed water physics system. The reason I say it is flawed is because, for example, a few buckets of water deposited in a small basin by a player can easily become an infinitely plentiful source of water; Water source blocks in close proximity to another, when removed, will regenerate themselves. If, presumably, this issue is addressed, our Steam Pumps will have twice the amount of purpose: Not only removing water from a specific area, but really moving it.
In this way, you could have a somewhat intricate system of pumps and pipes to transport fresh water from a nearby lake into a cistern located underneath your house, which could be used to feed fountains, pools, and all manner of watery devices. The need for a revised water system enhances this by making the pump-system necessary to maintain a constant amount of water, if it is indeed being used up by the player. Theoretically, with a revised water system, water being input into a basin will actually fill it, instead of just spilling down into is and being somehow magically absorbed by the floor.
Cool story, but how do you propose this to work?
Well, my idea was of some gears and iron bars and rods and bits of leather and whatall to be combined in some intricate manner to produce a pump assembly, which, when coupled with a boiler and a furnace could be connected to pipes, and be used to pump water. The boiler could presumably be constructed similar to how a chest or a furnace is made out of wood and stone; except out of iron. The boiler would be a new, independently placed block; when a furnace is placed directly under a boiler, and the boiler is in direct contact with the pump-assembly block, the boiler can be fed with water; and the furnace can be fed with any type of fuel to begin the process.
Our pipes would presumably be iron, and independently placed blocks; Similar to how tracks are places, pipes would connect to the next block in line and form a continuous chain. When there are two different pipes attached to the pump, the boiler has water, and the furnace is on, the pumping process may begin. The pump will attempt to pump water from one end of the pipe to the other; If no water is at the end of the pipe the pump is trying to pump it from, nothing will happen. The player could switch which direction the pump is pumping; Water would travel from B to A instead of A to B. This function could presumably be controllable via redstone.
Pumps would be difficult to construct, and would require large amounts of rarer resources.
We already have steam engines in the form of powered minecarts, and historically people have experimented with steam pumps since the 1650s, so why not in minecraft?
Please note that many specific details here are very theoretical; I expect many of the finer points to be decided by Notch and the mojang team, such as the specific method of crafting the pump-assembly.
tl;dr version:
Steam pumps made out of four separate block-assemblies (Pump, boiler, pipes and furnace) would be used to remove water from a certain area and pump it to another. This could be used to drain areas easily, and to fill up other areas if and when Notch revises the current water physics system.
Buckets are for casuals
If buckets are for casuals, minecraft is for the hardcore.
Now we're talking. Geothermal energy is already practical in the form of lava buckets for smelting stuff; Now it can be even more practical for pumping water!