Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester 2017 003

William McNaught ( - 1888) was a

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 trans ...

engineer from

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, Lancashire, England. McNaught was born in Manchester in ( and apprenticed with a Mr Mills of Heywood,

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. He then worked in London for John & Thomas Rennie before coming to Alexander Petrie & Son, around 1838. McNaught became chief designer and superintendent at James Petrie's and designed a cutoff gear for use on a

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 cars ...

. This was patented by James Petrie in 1844. Petrie started to build mill engines in 1819, McNaught joined in 1838 and remained until 1858, when he started his own company. Before this patent, there were problems with

slide valve The slide valve is a rectilinear valve used to control the admission of steam into and emission of exhaust from the cylinder of a steam engine. Use In the 19th century, most steam locomotives used slide valves to control the flow of steam into ...

s which suffered excessive wear. The Petrie and McNaught cutoff valves were circular with sloping faces that allowed a variable cut-off; they could be easily connected to the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

that McNaught patented in 1850. In 1860 he left Petrie's to set up his own business building steam engines at the former Halstead's 'Union Foundry' at Wet Rake on Drake Street, Rochdale. He was so successful that by 1863 he had built the St George's Foundry on Crawford St. Rochdale. . When he retired in 1870, the firm was taken over by his sons John and William and became known as ''J&W McNaught''. They later amalgamated with ''John Petrie'' becoming ''Petrie and McNaught''. William McNaught died on 11 February 188, aged 76.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * British steam engine engineers 1813 births 1881 deaths Engineers from Lancashire People from Rochdale {{UK-engineer-stub