Machine-Workers From Liege And Namur In The Borinage Late Xviiith Early Xlxth Centuries. Contribution To Industrial & Social History: The first steam-engines of the continent (Newcomen type) were sent from. England as a number of component parts and assembled on the spot. Although historians have attributed engines of this kind in the Borinage to engineers from Liège or Namur, no proof of this has been forthcoming in order to verify the origin of several such engineers and their social background. Three families appear in this study.