The Engine at the King Friedrich mine had operated, like all Watt type engines, with the low effective steam pressure of 0,3-0,4 bars. Above all the effect of the engine depends on the quality of the vacuum produced within the condenser.

When the piston is at the top of its stroke, the admission valve (EV) and the exhaust valve (AV) are simultaneously opened. The equilibrium valve (GV) is closed. The admission live steam pushes the piston downward supported by the vacuum below the piston. 

With that the piston of the shaft pump and also the water within the shaft raises during this working stroke .

Short before the piston reaches the bottom dead point the valves EV and AV close whereas GV opens. The piston, having then an equal pressure on each side, is pulled up again to the top of the cylinder by the overweight of the shaft rod. During these the expanded steam above the piston streams through the communication tube into the cylinder chamber below the piston. The weights at each side of the working beam are balanced by an auxiliary beam, linked with the shaft rod. In such a manner the no-load stroke runs off with the same velocity as the working stroke.

When the upper dead point had reached the position of valves once more changes and the working stroke starts again. During fresh live steam streams in the cylinder the spent steam from the last stroke below the Piston ejects through the vent pipe into the condenser.

During the working stroke the injection valve (SV) is opened. The exhaust steam is condensed by injection of cold water into the condenser. An additional surface condensation in the vent pipe leads finally to a vacuum of up to 90 %. The wet air pump (within the condenser case) removes the condensate-air-mixture from the condenser. The hot water pump (situated above the condenser case) lifts the condensate 4,5 metres high to a channel, from where its run only by gravity through the supply line into the boiler.

The cataract control is characterized by locking ratchets for each EV and AV. A piston within a small waterfilled cylinder is lifted during the no-load stroke. Then this piston, regulated by weights, sinks and by that way releases the locking ratchets of the steam valves delayly.

It was important for the perfect operation of the engine that the valves opened and closed at the precise moment. Otherwise the tops of the cylinder could be damaged or the working beam could be hit the cross beams. Therefore the tappets for the valve activity at the control gear are adjustable. So the engine was able to adapt varying load conditions. At the start of the engine the valves were operated by hand.

The first German steam engine was established at the Mansfeld copper mining district near Hettstedt-Burgörner in 1785. It is a single-acting Watt type beam engine for pumping water from a mine, which has a depth of 100 meters. This engine was constructed by Carl Friedrich Bückling, a young Prussian mining engineer familiar with the technique of Watt type engines due to educational trips to England.

For the construction of the engine also the first German steam engine workshop was founded near the mine. On August 23rd of 1785 the engine was set to work. It was here in operation till 1794 when it was replaced by a larger one. From 1796 till 1848 that first engine operated at a coal mine north of Halle.

The brass cylinder of the first German steam engine measures 732 mm in diameter. It was foundred by the Royal gun foundry at Berlin. The stroke length is 2.5 m and the wooden working beam is 7.8 m long.

The steam engine workshop at Hettstedt has produced at least ten engines. They were patterns for the subsequently steam engine construction in Germany, for example in Westphalia, Upper Silesia or Saxony. That first German steam engine was originally reconstructed for the Mansfeld-Museum on the occasion of the 200th anniversary in 1985.