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Kew Bridge Beam Engines KEW BRIDGE BEAM ENGINES H ISTORIC M ECHANICAL E NGINEERING LANDMARK LONDON, UK 10 JULY 1997 ASME International I MECH E CONTENTS WHAT YOU WILL SEE . 1 What you will see “Until you have seen and heard one of Our future plans ... and the story these huge engines at work it is of a London Waterworks . 2 impossible to appreciate their majesty . 6 The Cornish Engine explained fully. As the great beam rocks to and fro Boulton & Watt in its trunnions high overhead, the down 'West Cornish' Engine . 9 plunge of the piston rod and the The Maudslay Engine . 10 polished geometry of the Watt linkage, The ‘Bull’ Engine . 11 in the poetry of their mechanical motion, Grand Junction 90-inch Engine . 12 seem the most perfect expression of The 100-inch Engine . 13 power. Take steam away and their The Easton & Amos Engine . 15 breath of life is gone, bright metal The Dancer’s End Engine . 16 tarnishes and the engine house goes Hathorn Davey cold and dead.” Triple Expansion Engine . 18 L T C Rolt The Salisbury Engine . 19 Auxiliary Engines . 20 There are few sights more inspiring than Water Supply Relics . 21 a large steam engine in a cathedral-like Forge and Machine Shop . 21 enginehouse, majestically yet quietly Boiler Plant . 23 going about its work. What you will see Steam Traction Engines . 23 at Kew Bridge is a developing Museum Steam Information . 23 of Water – Man’s most basic need – a The Kew Bridge Engines Trust . 24 unique museum with an emphasis on live steam power as applied to waterworks during the 19th and 20th centuries. West London's water supply from the River Thames, showing the pipe- work route (dotted) from Hampton intake to Campden Hill Service Reservoir via Kew Bridge Pumping Station The Museum is located in the historic premises of the former Grand Junction Water Works Company’s Kew Bridge pumping station with its splendid standpipe tower, close to the north bank of the Thames from which the engines once drew their supply. Conceived by the Metropolitan Water Board in 1942, the Museum is centred around five world-famous Cornish beam pumping engines which pumped London’s drinking water for more than a century. Three now operate every weekend under steam. The Kew Bridge Engines Trust which runs the Museum com- mends the Board’s foresight in saving these unique engines and the site. 1 Other large steam, diesel and electric Our pride and joy, however, is the pumping engines are being added to the Grand Junction 90-inch Cornish beam collection as time and money permit. Six engine, named after the diameter of its steam engines are now running, includ- huge cylinder inside which a BBC-TV ing the three Cornish engines. In camera crew recorded a party for Blue addition, the display includes a variety Peter to celebrate the engine’s return to of smaller stationary steam and internal work in 1976. Made in Cornwall in 1845, combustion engines, together with a it is now the biggest beam engine work- fascinating collection of relics ing anywhere. Every Saturday and connected with London’s water supply, Sunday, it lives again to the delight of some dating back to early times. thousands. In an adjacent house is the Steam traction engines, steam boats still larger 100-inch engine, built in 1869- and their engines and other historic 71. One day, given enough public steam engine types are restored and you support, it too will pump water again... may find one in steam. A 19th century Forge and a Machine Shop, both vital in the process of restoring old machinery, OUR FUTURE PLANS... are also open to view. The oldest engine at Kew Bridge is the As we go to press, our landlord – Boulton & Watt ‘West Cornish’ engine Thames Water Authority – is releasing dating from 1820. Despite its age, this more of the historic part of the site to us. beautifully-finished engine literally We have just taken over the old sparkles with life, its huge beam rocking Carpenters Shop (the building you first to and fro six times a minute and its entered) which was originally a boiler- pump shifting 130 gallons (590 litres) on house; the low level buildings to the east each stroke. of the site; the former Diesel house and, In an adjoining room is a unique all the low level buildings on the western steam engine yet to be restored. It is a side of the site. 70 inch diameter cylinder ‘Bull’ Cornish Our plans are: 1. In the ‘Carpenters engine, built in Cornwall in 1856. At Shop’, to create a History of London’s ground level it stands hidden behind its water supply from early beginnings panelling next to the recently restored through the ‘New River’, the early 19th Maudslay engine of 1838 (see page 10). century epidemics to the present day. The main Steam Hall – formerly a Exhibits will emphasise domestic ap- boilerhouse – is being used to house pliances such as closets, baths and additional engines of different designs basins and the problems and methods and periods. It contains two rotative of waste disposal. beam engines of contrasting design and 2. In the low level buildings to the dating from the 1860s. In the same room west, we plan to install in the present is a much more modern example of Electric Pump House other examples of steam pumping power, a 1910 Hathorn electric pumps, switch gear and Davey triple expansion engine from controls. And next door, to open a new Newmarket waterworks, which strongly Tea Room adjacent to the Steam Hall. resembles a ship’s engine. All these 3. In the Diesel House, to retain one of engines were transported, re-erected four Allen diesel engine sets, a Mirrlees and restored to steam by our own diesel set, a Ruston & Hornsby set to- engineers and volunteers. These will gether with a gas fired Tangye set from shortly be joined by a 1910 James Bewdley plus its gas producer. Visitors Simpson compound horizontal pump- will be able to see this work in progress. ing engine from Waddon Pumping 4. A 2 ft. gauge steam railway to run Station in South London. Small steam around the museum site, representing a engines, models and displays illustrat- typical industrial railway. ing the history of London’s drinking 5. To erect a large water wheel driven water supply and items of machinery pumping set between the two engine undergoing restoration complete the houses. main hall. 2 The first station was built in 1811 near THE STORY OF A LONDON what is now Paddington railway station WATERWORKS and the source was the Grand Junction Canal, from which the company took its The story of Kew Bridge Pumping name. In 1820 the company built a new Station is the story of a water company’s station at Chelsea where a pair of struggle to keep pace with the demand Boulton & Watt beam engines pumped for water by a rapidly spreading water from the Thames to the reservoirs metropolis. The station was laid down in at Paddington. This source too, proved 1837 to the design of William Anderson: to be polluted so the station was closed the third attempt on the part of the and the two engines transferred to Kew Grand Junction Waterworks Company Bridge between 1838 and 1842. One to establish a pollution-free source from fortunately survives today and was the which to supply a large area embracing first engine that was set to work by the Paddington, Kensington, and later Kew Bridge Engines Trust at the start of Ealing. the museum project in 1975. Kew's earliest beam engine – the 1820 Boulton & Watt – was originally installed at Chelsea Pumping Station pictured below. One of a pair, it was transferred to Kew in 1840. The first engine to start pumping at Kew Alas for the Grand Junction Water Bridge was, however, a new engine, Works Company’s faith in the Thames at built by the Lambeth firm of Maudslay, Kew Bridge. Outbreaks of cholera in Sons & Field and set to work in 1838. It, London forced legislation in 1852 too, was a beam engine and still sur- compelling all companies using the vives today, albeit somewhat altered Thames as their source to remove either from its original condition. In 1845 the their pumping stations or their intakes to Grand Junction Water Works Company tap the purer water in the non-tidal commissioned a new reservoir at the top Thames above Teddington Weir. The of Campden Hill, whereupon the company chose to lay a main to Kew Paddington reservoir was closed and Bridge from a new intake at Hampton the three Kew Bridge engines began which came into operation in 1855. This pumping to the new reservoir. made the grasshopper filter engines Even at Kew Bridge, however, pollu- redundant so they were disposed of and tion was a problem and filter beds had a 70-inch cylinder inverted ‘Bull’ Cornish to be built (filtration was compulsory by engine built by Harvey & Company put 1856). Two 40-inch diameter cylinder in their place. 'grasshopper’ Cornish beam engines The station was soon hard put to it to were built by Sandys, Carne & Vivian at meet the demand. The breakage of the Copperhouse Foundry, Hayle, to pump beam of one of the Boulton & Watt raw water into them. These unusual engines in December 1862, which put engines were installed alongside the the engine out of action for two months, Maudslay engine in 1845. This move highlighted the problem. Acting on the was part of a major plan to update and advice of Harvey's William Husband, the augment the pumping capacity at Kew GJWWCo's engineer, Joseph Quick, Bridge and was the brainchild of a young instituted a programme of adding engineer, Thomas Wicksteed.
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