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Beam Pumping Engines in Victoria

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Beam Pumping Engines in Victoria AUSTRALASTAN HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, I5, I997 BeamPumping Engines in Victoria PETER MILNER This is the second in a nuo-part study on mining heritage inVictoria. Here a case study is presentedin which one class of mining machinery, beam pumping engines, is analysed utilising the database described in the first article. The number and distribution of beam pumping engines during the nineteenth century is discussed,the locations ofsurviving plant surveyed,and the heritage signfficance ofthat plant considered. The beam pumping engine with its large vertical cylinder, largest,the 80 inch by 120inch-engine erected at Chinamans massiverocking beam and well-oiledand polishedvalve gear Flat in 1873,and they spanalmost the entire first period of was for the nineteenth century what a piece of high activemining operations in Victoria,from I 859to I 905.+What technologSsuch as a very fast train, a supersonicairliner, or a is particularlynoticeable is thatconfirmed beam engine usage large power station would be in this century. Such engines appearsto be confinedto a relativelysmall number of centres: were a later developmentof the atmosphericpumping engines Ballarat (including Sebastopoland Buninyong)(17), Beny of Newcomen,Smeaton and Watt. In all theseearly engines the and Timor deep leads (8), Castlemaine-FryersCreek (5), power motive was providedby the pressureof the air actingon Ballarat region (4), Daylesford (including Hepbum and the exposedsurface of a piston which movedin a long vertical Yandoit)(3), andMaldon (1). cylinder.This arrangementwas especiallyconfigured to suit In addition,there were sevenother installations which. bv the availablereciprocating pump technology.As the powerof virtue of the size of engineused, were possiblyalso beam these engines increasedin proportion to the square of the engines.Before 1880in Victoria,it was quite rare to havean cylinderdiameter, and as steam pressures were limited both by engine with a cylinder diametergreater than 25 inches.It JamesWatt and by prevailing boiler technologyto be rarely seemslikely, therefore,that the 30 inch by 60 inch engine much abovethat of the atmosphere(for example,no more than erectedin June 1860 at Maldon was a beam engine.If the 5 pounds per squareinch by 1775), they were built in ever referenceto a 26 inch by 50 inch enginein April 1862for the increasing sizes to perform very heavy pumping work. samecompany is not the sameengine then this wasalso likely Cylinders72 inchesin diameterwere not unusualby the latter to be a beamengine, as it hada verticalcylinder. One or other half of the eighteenthcentury, as 80, 90 and even 100 inch of these engines was acquired from the Great Eastem cylinderengines were in thenineteenth century. With thelapse Companyat Ballarat,an areawhere a numberof beam of the Wan patentsin 1800,and underTrevithick's influence, engines were subsequentlyinstalled. Both the Cumberland,Durham steam pressuresof up to 50 pounds per square inch were andCornish, and the DomaMungi engineswere large for their substitutedfor air pressure,but to achieveadequate economy time andso may alsohave been beam engines. Finally, there is of operationthese engines were worked expansively with early a referenceto the Lady Barkly Company having curoff, so that the meaneffective cylinder pressureremained obtained a Sebastopoldrainage engine. As Sebastopolwas low andcylinder diameters correspondingly large. an areawhere beam engineswere in use, it is possiblethat this was a If Connellcould discoversome 50 beamengines in South referenceto a beamengine which was sold and removedto Australia,how many suchengines might therJhave beenin Castlemainewhere such engines were also in use. Victoria?t The answer could be either more or less: more Even without any of these possibleinstallations, becausemining in Victoriawas much more extensivethan in it is alreadyevident that the numberof beamengines SouthAustralia during the nineteenthcentury; less because in Victoria was at leastcomparable with that for South Victorian mining, which was the major user of steampower Australia.It is questionable,though, whetherthis accurately throughoutmost of the nineteenthcentury, developed after that estimatesthe actual number once in use. In the Ballarat of SouthAustralia, and at a time when the beamengine was Times for 5 May 1857, R. Towns and Company(1857-1873), being supersededby other forms of steamengine. McCarthy Melbourne machinery agents and importers, were and Davis are of the latter view, identifying no more than advertising beam enginesfor salein cylindersizes tenbeam engines in usein Victoria.2They argued that this was up to 30 inchesin diameter, and obviously thought that the Ballarat becausethe majority of Victorian mines used a simpler and mines would be a suitable market. Severalyears later, in the Ballarat less expensiveabove-ground installation, consisting of a Star for 28 July 1860, Alexander MacFarlane horizontal rotative steamengine driving a crank arm through and Company (1857-1909),Melboume machineryagents reductiongears, with a largebalance bob set in a pit besidethe and importers, were advertisingboth horizontal shaft collar. In this paper the contrary proposition is argued, and beamengines for sale, rangingfrom 4 to 60 horsepower,as well andthe data bases described elsewhere in this volumeare used as 30 inch pumping enginesmanufactured by Harvey both to raise the standardof debateabout this issue, and to and Company,of Hayle, Cornwall.The Harvey discussthe cultural significance of extantbeam engine sites. engineswere almost certainly beam engines,based on cylindersize. Although there is no evidence THE NUMBER OF BEAM ENGINBS from the survivingbusiness records of Harveyand Company INVICTORIA thatany of their largerengines were specifically imported into Victoria,at leastone Harvey beam engine was installedby the An examinationof the reports of the mining surveyorsand Great North West Companyat Ballarat in 1866.sIt is also mining registrarsfor the Departmentof Mines in Victoria for possiblethat one or otherof the 80 inch enginesinstalled by the periodfrom May 1859to December1889, taken rogether the Winter's Freeholdand Great North West companies,in with a numberof additionaldepartmental reports and selected 1868 and 1870 respectively,was a Harvey engine, as the newspaperand joumal articlesmakes it possibleto constructa Harveyrecords show that an 80 inch enginewas exportedto list of some 38 beam engine installations.3These are Australiain 1868.0 The 80 inchby 120inch engine exported to summarised in Table 1. They range in size from a Australiain 1872may very well havebeen the engine installed 6 horsepowerone at SpecimenHill in 1859 to Australia's at the Duke and Timor mine at Chinaman'sFlat a year later.T 4 Table1. Beamengine installations in Victoria Date Installation location:size, type, (function)[remains] {notes} Confirmed mine installations (38) 07.1859 Brownand Harper,Gordon: 18 horsepowerex Glasgow,rotative/pedestal (crushing) 05.1859 UnionMining Association/Eaglehawk Association/Eaglehawk Union Company, EaglehawkReef, Maldon: 16 inch by 48 inch,35 horsepower,?rotative (pumping and crushing) 06.1859 Gibbs,Pringle and Company,Specimen Hill, Fryers Creek: six horsepower,rotative (crushing) 1 1.1859 Princeof WalesGold MiningCompany, Cobblers Lead, No.4Division, Ballarat, 10 inch by 24 inch,?rotative (winding) ?1860 DonnybrookCompany, No.3 Division,Ballarat, 25 horsepower{previously with the hinamans Princeol WalesGold MiningCompany) period of ?1860 EldoradoCompany, Specimen Hill, Fryers Creek: 65 horsepowervertical (pumping) .r5.'rWhat ffragmentof rubblemasonry beam wall] lne usage 04.1861 BandoJ Hope Company, No.1 shaft, Golden Point Lead, No. 1 Division,Ballarat: 30 inch i centres: by 108inch, 70 horsepower(pumping) -r. Beny 03.1862 Old SpecimenHill Gully Quartz Mining Association, Specimen Gully, Barker's Creek, reek (5), Castlemaine:22 inchby 42inch,40horsepower (pumping and crushing) :um and 05.1862 Nelsonand WellingtonGold MiningCompany, Frenchman's Lead, Sebastopol, Ballarat: rotative(winding) rhich, by 05.1862 CriterionCompany, Hoggett's Ree{, Yandort: {previously with the DonnybrookCompany} l:o beam 07.1862 PerseveranceCompany/New Perseverance Quartz Mining Company, White HorseReef, ) have an No.5Division, Ballarat: Phoenix Foundry 18.5 inch by 35 inch(crushing) nches. It 09.1862 BallaratMill Gold Mining Company, Mill Lead, Wendouree Swamp, No.1 Division, (winding,pumping puddling) h engine Ballarat:14 inchby 30 inchrotative and le. If the 08.1863 SpecimenHill Quartz Mining Company, Specimen Hill, Hepburn:14.5 inch by 30 inch (pumpingand crushing) with the CriterionCompany} rl for the {previously i:o likely 03.1864 GreatNorth West Company,No.1 Division, Ballarat: 32 inch by 48 inch, 100 horsepower (pumping) l or other Eastern 08.1865 HavelockQuartz Mining Company, Daylesford: 12 horsepower(crushing) r engines 08.1865 LeighConsols Gold Mining Company: 14 inchby 30 inchrotative (winding) Durham 12.1865 StanleyGold Mining Company, Pitfield Plains, No.4 Division, Ballarat: 30 inchby --. : tbr their inch,70 horsepower(pumping) lshaft site and mullock] .. thereis 05.1866 AmeliaReef Quartz Mining Company/New Amelia Reef Company, Blue Mountain North: :tained a 12 inchby..- inch(crushing) :a where 05.1866 GreatNorth West Company, No.1 Division, Ballarat: Harvey 40 inchby 108inch (pumping) .i was a noved to 09.1866 UnitedExtended Band of HopeCompany/United Hand-in-Hand and Bandof Hope Company,Golden PoinVlnkermann Lead, No.1 Division, Ballarat: 50 inchby --. inch,
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