From the early nineteenth century steam engines replaced wind to pump water off low-lying land, driving scoop wheels and then centrifugal pumps far more reliably than windmills. Steam pumping stations drained the English Fens and helped the Dutch empty large lakes such as the Haarlemmermeer between 1849 and 1852. Continuous, weather-independent power let engineers reclaim ground previously beyond reach. Pumped drainage made permanent the conversion of wetland into farmland and, later, building land.
Steam pumping freed land reclamation from the wind, enabling the draining of large lakes and fens and the creation of new agricultural and urban ground.