04-04-2017, 02:30 PM
A beam motor is a type of steam engine in which a rotating head beam is used to apply the force of a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall. Engine efficiency was improved by engineers including James Watt who added a separate condenser, Jonathan Hornblower and Arthur Woolf who made the cylinders, and William McNaught (Glasgow) who devised a method of composing an existing engine. Beam engines were first used to pump water from the mines or into the canals, but could be used to pump water to supplement the flow of a hydraulic wheel feeding a mill.
Beam Engines and waterbucket pumps were introduced in Wanlockhead in 1745. The famous Wanlockhead Beam Engine is a survivor of this technology. A certain history of Wanlockhead beam engine has not been found to date but descriptions of similar engines have survived from 1745 and are recorded to have been used in a coal mine at Canonbie, Dumfriesshire in the 1790's. The Wanlockhead Beam Engine was built, it is believed, in the mid 19th century and is the only remaining example of a waterbucket pumping engine to be seen at a mine in the UK today.
Waterbucket pumping engines originated in an attempt to create a "perpetual motion" machine. The Wanlockhead Beam Engine allowed the miners to continue working at the Straitsteps mine.
Beam Engines and waterbucket pumps were introduced in Wanlockhead in 1745. The famous Wanlockhead Beam Engine is a survivor of this technology. A certain history of Wanlockhead beam engine has not been found to date but descriptions of similar engines have survived from 1745 and are recorded to have been used in a coal mine at Canonbie, Dumfriesshire in the 1790's. The Wanlockhead Beam Engine was built, it is believed, in the mid 19th century and is the only remaining example of a waterbucket pumping engine to be seen at a mine in the UK today.
Waterbucket pumping engines originated in an attempt to create a "perpetual motion" machine. The Wanlockhead Beam Engine allowed the miners to continue working at the Straitsteps mine.
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