Illustration of the pumping machine built by Easton Amos and Sons exhibited in operation at the London International Exhibition of 1861. It was based on the centrifugal pump invented by John George Appold and which was driven by a two-cylinder steam engine. Appold's patent centrifugal pump had curved blades and was considerably more efficient than other centrifugal pumps of that time. Designed for land drainage and irrigation, during the 1850's it drained the last of the Fenland 'great meres' -Whittesley Mere- creating prime agricultural land. However, under the Great Fen Project the mere may be partially returned to wetland again. An 1861 Easton & Amos two-cylinder steam engine driving an Appold centrifugal pump is preserved in running order at Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum in Somerset, England.