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A stationary engine is an
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
whose framework does not move. They are used to drive immobile equipment, such as
pump A pump is a device that moves fluids ( liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method the ...
s, generators, mills or factory machinery, or cable cars. The term usually refers to large immobile
reciprocating engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common fea ...
s, principally
stationary steam engine Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam c ...
s and, to some extent, stationary
internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal co ...
s. Other large immobile power sources, such as
steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turb ...
s,
gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
s, and large
electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate forc ...
s, are categorized separately. Stationary engines were once widespread in the era when each factory or mill generated its own power, and power transmission was mechanical (via line shafts, belts, gear trains, and clutches). Applications for stationary engines have declined since
electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histo ...
has become widespread; most industrial uses today draw electricity from an
electrical grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
and distribute it to various individual electric motors instead. Engines that operate in one place, but can be moved to another place for later operation, are called portable engines. Although stationary engines and portable engines are both "
stationary In addition to its common meaning, stationary may have the following specialized scientific meanings: Mathematics * Stationary point * Stationary process * Stationary state Meteorology * A stationary front is a weather front that is not moving ...
" (not moving) while running, preferred usage (for clarity's sake) reserves the term "stationary engine" to the permanently immobile type, and "portable engine" to the mobile type.


Types of stationary engine

*
Stationary steam engine Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam c ...
* Hit and miss engine * Hot bulb engine *
Hot tube engine The hot tube engine is a primitive and long-obsolete type of combustion engine, not to be confused with the hot-bulb engine. The timing of a hot tube engine is controlled by means of varying the length of the hot-tube ignitor, that does the job th ...


Applications


Lead, tin, and copper mines


Cotton, woollen, and worsted mills


Flour mills and corn grinders

A flat belt could be used to connect an engine to a flour mill or corn grinder. These machines are popular at old engine shows. Corn grinders would take corn off of the cob, and grind up corn into animal feed. flour mills make flour.


Electricity generation

Before mains electricity and the formation of nationwide
power grids An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
, stationary engines were widely used for small-scale electricity generation. While large
power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...
s in cities used
steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turb ...
s or high-speed reciprocating
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...
s, in rural areas petrol/gasoline, paraffin/kerosene, and
fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bu ...
-powered internal combustion engines were cheaper to buy, install, and operate, since they could be started and stopped quickly to meet demand, left running unattended for long periods of time, and did not require a large dedicated engineering staff to operate and maintain. Due to their simplicity and economy, hot bulb engines were popular for high-power applications until the
diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
took their place from the 1920s. Smaller units were generally powered by spark-ignition engines, which were cheaper to buy and required less space to install. Most engines of the late-19th and early-20th centuries ran at speeds too low to drive a
dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundat ...
or
alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.G ...
directly. As with other equipment, the generator was driven off the engine's flywheel by a broad flat belt. The pulley on the generator was much smaller than the flywheel, providing the required 'gearing up' effect. Later spark-ignition engines developed from the 1920s could be directly coupled. Up to the 1930s most rural houses in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
and North America needed their own generating equipment if electric light was fitted. Engines would often be installed in a dedicated "engine house", which was usually an outbuilding separate from the main house to reduce the interference from the engine noise. The engine house would contain the engine, the generator, the necessary
switchgear In an electric power system, a switchgear is composed of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment. Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to allow work to be ...
and fuses, as well as the engine's fuel supply and usually a dedicated workshop space with equipment to service and repair the engine. Wealthy households could afford to employ a dedicated engineer to maintain the equipment, but as the demand for electricity spread to smaller homes, manufacturers produced engines that required less maintenance and that did not need specialist training to operate. Such generator sets were also used in industrial complexes and public buildings – anywhere where electricity was required but mains electricity was not available. Most countries in the
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
completed large-scale rural electrification in the years following
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, making individual generating plants obsolete for front-line use. However, even in countries with a reliable mains supply, many buildings are still fitted with modern
diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel Genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of engine generator. A diesel compression-i ...
s for emergency use, such as
hospitals A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergenc ...
and pumping stations. This network of generators often forms a crucial part of the national electricity system's strategy for coping with periods of high demand.


Pumping stations

The development of water supply and sewage removal systems required the provision of many
pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, ...
s. In these, some form of stationary engine (steam-powered for earlier installations) is used to drive one or more
pump A pump is a device that moves fluids ( liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method the ...
s, although
electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate forc ...
s are more conventionally used nowadays.


Canals

For
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...
s, a distinct area of application concerned the powering of boat lifts and inclined planes. Where possible these would be arranged to utilise water and gravity in a balanced system, but in some cases additional power input was required from a stationary engine for the system to work. The vast majority of these were constructed (and in many cases, demolished again) before steam engines were supplanted by internal combustion alternatives.


Cable haulage railways

Industrial railways in quarries and mines made use of
cable railway Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a he ...
s based on the
inclined plane An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six cla ...
idea, and certain early passenger railways in the UK were planned with lengths of cable-haulage to overcome severe gradients. For the first proper railway, the Liverpool and Manchester of 1830, it was not clear whether locomotive traction would work, and the railway was designed with steep 1 in 100 gradients concentrated on either side of Rainhill, just in case. Had cable haulage been necessary, then inconvenient and time-consuming shunting would obviously have been required to attach and detach the cables. The Rainhill gradients proved not to be a problem, and in the event, locomotive traction was determined to be a new technology with great potential for further development. The steeper 1 in 50 grades from Liverpool down to the docks were operated by cable traction for several decades until locomotives improved. Cable haulage continued to be used where gradients were even steeper. Cable haulage did prove viable where the gradients were exceptionally steep, such as the 1 in 8 gradients of the Cromford and High Peak Railway opened in 1830. Cable railways generally have two tracks with loaded wagons on one track partially balanced by empty wagons on the other, to minimise fuel costs for the stationary engine. Various kinds of
rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack and pinion, rack rail, usually between the running Track (rail transport)#Rail, rails. The trains are fitted with one or ...
were developed to overcome the lack of friction of conventional locomotives on steep gradients. These early installations of stationary engines would all have been steam-powered initially.


Some manufacturers of stationary engines

*
Associated Manufactures Company Associated may refer to: *Associated, former name of Avon, Contra Costa County, California * Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto, a school in Canada *Associated Newspapers, former name of DMG Media DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an inte ...
USA * Blackstone & Co UK c.1882 - 1936 *
Briggs & Stratton Briggs & Stratton Corporation is an American manufacturer of gasoline engines with headquarters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Engine production averages 10 million units per year as of April 2015. The company reports that it has 13 large facilit ...
USA * Charter Gas Engine Company c.1883-1920s * Cushman * Deere & Company / John Deere USA * Electro-Motive USA * Emerson-Brantingham USA * Fairbanks-Morse USA * Fuller and Johnson *
Hercules Gas Engine Company The Hercules Gas engine company was a United States-based company which first produced buggies. It later was one of the top producers of gasoline engines, including to power cement mixers. The company was founded in 1902, in Cincinnati, Ohi ...
1912-1930s *
Hercules Motors Corporation Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the G ...
1915-1967, 1976- * Richard Hornsby & Sons UK * International Harvester USA * Jacobson Machine Manufacturing Company * Kohler Company USA * Lister Petter UK **
R A Lister and Company R A Lister & Company was founded in Dursley, Gloucestershire, England, in 1867 by Sir Robert Ashton Lister (1845–1929), to produce agricultural machinery. History 1867–1906: Foundation and growth The founder of R A Lister and Company w ...
UK ** Petters Limited UK * Malkotsis Greece * National Gas Engine Company UK * New Holland Machine Company USA * Olds Gasoline Engine Works (Pliny Olds, sons Wallace and Ransom) (1890s-1910) * Otto Gas Engine Works *
Palmer Brothers Pama Records is a British record label active during the 1960s and 1970s. Initially focused on soul music, it became one of the major outlets for reggae in the UK. History The label was set up by the Palmer Brothers – Harry, Jeff, and Carl †...
* Rider-Ericsson Engine Company * Russell & Company USA *
Stover Manufacturing and Engine Company The Stover Manufacturing and Engine Company was created by D.C. Stover in 1881.American Gasoline Engines Since 1872, MBI Publishing, 1999, pp. 489-96. An established inventor, he progressed through a profitable windmill business to, in 1895, the ...
*
Van Duzen Gas and Gasoline Engine Company A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
c.1891-1898 * Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company USA *
Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technol ...
* Witte Engine Works


Preserved stationary engines

Many steam rallies, like the Great Dorset Steam Fair, include an exhibit section for internal combustion stationary engines for which purpose the definition is usually extended to include any engine which was not intended primarily for the propulsion of a vehicle. Thus many are in fact portable engines, either from new or having been converted by mounting on a wheeled trolley for ease of transport and may also include such things as marine or airborne auxiliary power units and engines removed from equipment such as motor mowers. These engines have been restored by private individuals and often are exhibited in operation, powering water pumps, electric generators, hand tools, and the like. In the UK there are few museums where visitors can see stationary engines in operation. Many museums have one or more engines but only a few specialise in the internal combustion stationary engines. Among these are the Internal Fire Museum of Power, in Wales, and the Anson Engine Museum in Cheshire. The
Amberley Working Museum Amberley Museum is an open-air industrial heritage museum at Amberley, near Arundel in West Sussex, England. The museum is owned and operated by Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre, a not-for-profit company and registered charity, and has the su ...
in West Sussex also has a number of engines, as does Kew Bridge Steam Museum in London.


See also

* Canterbury and Whitstable Railway *
Diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel Genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of engine generator. A diesel compression-i ...
, which may be stationary * Engine-generator, which may be stationary * Hillclimbing (railway) * Non-road engine


References


External links

{{Commons category, Stationary engines
Antique Stationary Engines

Internal Fire Museum of Power
in Wales
Anson Engine Museum in Cheshire

Stationary engine website



Harry's Old Engine Home Page

Antique-engine.com
Engines Engine technology