A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by

Thomas Newcomen Thomas Newcomen (; February 1664 – 5 August 1729) was an English inventor who created the atmospheric engine, the first practical fuel-burning engine in 1712. He was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He ...

around 1705 to remove water from mines in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. The efficiency of the engines was improved by engineers including James Watt, who added a separate condenser;

Jonathan Hornblower Jonathan Hornblower (5 July 1753 – 23 February 1815) was an English pioneer of steam power. Personal life The son of Jonathan Hornblower the Elder and the brother of Jabez Carter Hornblower, two fellow pioneers, the young Hornblower wa ...

and

Arthur Woolf Arthur Woolf (1766, Camborne, Cornwall – 16 October 1837, Guernsey) was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure compound steam engine. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of th ...

, who compounded the cylinders; and William McNaught, who devised a method of compounding an existing engine. Beam engines were first used to pump water out of mines or into canals but could be used to pump water to supplement the flow for a waterwheel powering a

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

The rotative beam engine is a later design of beam engine where the connecting rod drives a

flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, as ...

by means of a crank (or, historically, by means of a

sun and planet gear The sun and planet gear is a method of converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion and was used in the first rotative beam engines. It was invented by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, but was patent ...

). These beam engines could be used to directly power the line-shafting in a

. They also could be used to power

steam ship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

History

The first beam engines were water-powered and used to pump water from mines. A preserved example may be seen at the Straitsteps Lead Mine in

Wanlockhead Wanlockhead is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, nestling in the Lowther Hills and south of Leadhills at the head of the Mennock Pass, which forms part of the Southern Uplands. It is Scotland's highest village, at an elevation of ar ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Beam engines were extensively used to power pumps on the English

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 flo ...

system when it was expanded by means of

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

early in the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, and also to drain water from mines in the same period, and as

winding engine A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also tradit ...

s. The first steam-related beam engine was developed by

. This was not, strictly speaking, steam powered, as the steam introduced below the piston was condensed to create a partial vacuum thus allowing atmospheric pressure to push down the piston. It was therefore called an Atmospheric Engine. The

Newcomen atmospheric engine The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine (see below) or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creati ...

was adopted by many mines in

and elsewhere, but it was relatively inefficient and consumed a large quantity of fuel. The engine was improved by

John Smeaton John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was a British civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the fi ...

but James Watt resolved the main inefficiencies of the Newcomen engine in his

Watt steam engine The Watt steam engine design became synonymous with steam engines, and it was many years before significantly new designs began to replace the basic Watt design. The first steam engines, introduced by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, were of the "a ...

by the addition of a separate condenser, thus allowing the cylinder to remain hot. Technically this was still an atmospheric engine until (under subsequent patents) he enclosed the upper part of the cylinder, introducing steam to also push the piston down. This made it a true steam engine and arguably confirms him as the inventor of the steam engine. He also patented the

centrifugal governor A centrifugal governor is a specific type of governor with a feedback system that controls the speed of an engine by regulating the flow of fuel or working fluid, so as to maintain a near-constant speed. It uses the principle of proportional con ...

and the

parallel motion In kinematics, the parallel motion linkage is a six-bar mechanical linkage invented by the Scottish engineer James Watt in 1784 for the double-acting Watt steam engine. It allows a rod moving practically straight up and down to transmit mo ...

. the latter allowed the replacement of chains round an arch head and thus allowed its use as a rotative engine. His patents remained in place until the start of the 19th Century and some say that this held back development. However, in reality development had been ongoing by others and at the end of the patent period there was an explosion of new ideas and improvements. Watt's beam engines were used commercially in much larger numbers and many continued to run for 100 years or more. Watt held patents on key aspects of his engine's design, but his rotative engine was equally restricted by

James Pickard James Pickard was an English inventor. He modified the Newcomen engine in a manner that it could deliver a rotary motion. His solution, which he patented in 1780, involved the combined use of a crank and a flywheel. James Watt's company Boul ...

's patent of the simple crank. The beam engine went on to be considerably improved and enlarged in the tin- and copper-rich areas of south west England, which enabled the draining of the deep mines that existed there. Consequently, the Cornish beam engines became world-famous, as they remain among the most massive beam engines ever constructed. Because of the number of patents on various parts of the engines and the consequences of patent infringements, examples exist of Beam Engines with no makers name on any of the parts
Hollycombe Steam Collection
.

Rotative beam engines

In a rotative beam engine, the piston is mounted vertically, and the

piston rod In a piston engine, a piston rod joins a piston to the crosshead and thus to the connecting rod that drives the crankshaft or (for steam locomotives) the driving wheels. Internal combustion engines, and in particular all current automobile engin ...

drives the beam as before. A connecting rod from the other end of the beam, rather than driving a pump rod, now drives a flywheel. Early Watt engines used Watt's patent

, rather than a simple crank, as use of the latter was protected by a patent owned by

. Once the patent had expired, the simple crank was employed universally. Once rotary motion had been achieved a drive belt could be attached beside the flywheel. This transmitted the power to other drive shafts and from these other belts could then be attached to power a variety of static machinery e.g. threshing, grinding or milling machines.

Marine beam engines

The first steam-powered ships used variants of the rotative beam engine. These

marine steam engine A marine steam engine is a steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. This article deals mainly with marine steam engines of the reciprocating type, which were in use from the inception of the steamboat in the early 19th century to their ...

s – known as side-lever, grasshopper, crosshead, or 'walking beam', among others – all varied from the original land-based machines by locating the beam or beams in different positions to take up less room on board ship.

Compounding

Compounding In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of a custom formulation of a medication to fit a unique need of a patient that cannot be met with commercially available products. This may be done for me ...

involves two or more cylinders; low-pressure steam from the first, high-pressure, cylinder is passed to the second cylinder where it expands further and provides more drive. This is the compound effect; the waste steam from this can produce further work if it is then passed into a condenser in the normal way. The first experiment with compounding was conducted by

, who took out a patent in 1781. His first engine was installed at Tincroft Mine, Cornwall. It had two cylinders – one diameter with stroke and one diameter with stroke – placed alongside each other at one end of the beam. The early engines showed little performance gain: the steam pressure was too low, interconnecting pipes were of small diameter and the condenser ineffective. At this time the laws of

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of th ...

were not adequately understood, particularly the concept of absolute zero. Engineers such as

were trying to tackle an engineering problem with an imperfect understanding of the physics. In particular, their

valve gear The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing ...

was cutting-in at the wrong position in the stroke, not allowing for expansive working in the cylinder. Successful Woolf compound engines were produced in 1814, for the Wheal Abraham copper mine and the

Wheal Vor Wheal may refer to: * Wheals, a type of skin lesion * Brad Wheal (born 1996), British cricketer * Donald James Wheal (1931–2008), British British television writer, novelist and non-fiction writer * David John Wheal, Australian businessman * " ...

tin mine.

McNaught engines

William McNaught patented a compound beam engine in 1845. On a beam engine of the standard

Boulton & Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...

design he placed a high-pressure cylinder, on the opposite side of the beam to the existing single cylinder, where the water pump was normally fitted. This had two important effects: it massively reduced the pressure on the beam, and the connecting steam pipe, being long, acted as an expansive receiver – the element missing in the Woolf design. This modification could be made retrospectively, and engines so modified were said to be "McNaughted". The advantages of a compound engine were not significant at pressures under , but showed at over .

Preserved beam engines

Abbey Pumping Station The Abbey Pumping Station is a museum of science and technology in Leicester, England, on Corporation Road, next to the National Space Centre. With four working steam-powered beam engines from its time as a sewage pumping station, it also houses ...

(Leicester, England) - houses four Woolf compound rotative beam engines built by Gimson and Company, Leicester. * Bolton Steam Museum (Bolton, England) – includes several rotative beam engines originally used to drive mills * Claymills Pumping Station (Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) - four Woolf compound, rotative, beam pumping engines; five Lancashire boilers; over thirty auxiliary engines on the site, including the oldest working steam driven dynamo in the country. * Coldharbour Mill (Uffculme, Devon) - 1867 Kittoe and Brotherhood beam engine plus Pollit & Wigzell 300 hp cross compound engine. In steam most Bank Holidays driving the rope race, together with other smaller machines. * Coultershaw Beam Pump (West Sussex, England) – preserved water-powered beam engine from 1782. *

Crofton Pumping Station Crofton Pumping Station, near the village of Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England, supplies the summit pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal with water. The steam-powered pumping station is preserved and operates on selected weekends. It contains ...

(Great Bedwyn, England) – two engines, including the oldest working 'Cornish' engine, in its original location, in the world (1812). * Crossness Pumping Station (Abbey Wood, London, England) – set of four rotative beam engines: the largest surviving working examples. *

Dogdyke Engine The Dogdyke Engine is a drainage engine near Tattershall, Lincolnshire, in England. The drainage of of land around Tattershall was authorised in 1796, and came under the control of the Witham Third District commissioners in 1844 The building ...

(Tattershall, Lincolnshire) – drainage engine and

scoop wheel Rim driven Scoop wheel of the Stretham Old Engine, Cambridgeshire A scoop wheel or scoopwheel is a pump, usually used for land drainage. A scoop wheel pump is similar in construction to a water wheel, but works in the opposite manner: a wate ...

, steamed summer weekends. * Eastney Beam Engine House (Portsmouth, England) – contains two rotative beam engines for sewage-pumping, dating from 1887. *

Elsecar Elsecar (, ) is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is near the villages of Jump and Wentworth and south of the town of Hoyland, south of Barnsley and north-east of Sheffield. Elsecar falls wit ...

(Elsecar, South Yorkshire, England) – the only surviving Newcomen engine (in the world) to have remained in its original location (1795). * Goulburn Waterworks (Goulburn, NSW, Australia) - Appleby Bros Beam Engine (1883) 120 hp in working order still in the original pump house building. * Grazebrook beam engine- A large pumping Boulton & Watt designed with a bore on static display on the Dartmouth roundabout on the

A38(M) The A38(M), commonly known as the Aston Expressway, is a motorway in Birmingham, England. It is long and was opened on 24 May 1972.Hollycombe Steam Collection The Hollycombe Steam Collection is a collection of steam-powered vehicles, amusement rides, and attractions in South East England. It is based in West Sussex, but the closest town is Liphook in Hampshire. The collection includes fairground rid ...

(Liphook, Hampshire, England) - A small (approx 5 horse power) working rotative bean engine dating from approx 1850, used to power farm machinery, with a water wheel attached to supplement the power. * Levant Mine and Beam Engine (Trewellard, Pendeen, England) – a working beam engine on a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

property in West Cornwall, England * Markfield Beam Engine (Tottenham, London, England) – a compound, rotative engine. * Museum De Cruquius (Cruquius, The Netherlands) – the eight-beamed engine at Cruquius is thought to be the largest steam engine ever built * Newcomen Memorial Engine (Dartmouth, Devon) - dating from about 1725. Hydraulic mechanism added for demonstration purposes. * Nottingham Industrial Museum (Nottingham, England) - The Steam Gallery contains an impressive Basford Beam Engine, one of a pair of engines built in 1858 by R. W. Hawthorn in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was installed at Basford Pumping Station to lift water from the sandstone below to supply fresh water to the City of Nottingham. The engine was replaced in 1965 and was removed to the purpose-built Steam Gallery where it was first fired in 1975. *

Pinchbeck Engine The Pinchbeck Engine is a drainage engine, a rotative beam engine built in 1833 to drain Pinchbeck Marsh, to the north of Spalding, Lincolnshire, in England. Until it was shut down in 1952, the engine discharged into the ''Blue Gowt'' which ...

(Spalding, Lincolnshire) – statically preserved 'A'-frame engine. * Poldark Mine (Trenear, Cornwall) - Harvey's of

Hayle Hayle ( kw, Heyl, "estuary") is a port town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately seven miles (11 km) northeast of Penzance. ...

Cornish Beam Engine from Bunny Tin Mine and later Greensplat China Clay Pit dating from about 1850. Hydraulic mechanism added for demonstration purposes. Last to have worked commercially in Cornwall to December 1959, moved to Poldark in 1972. * Ryhope Engines Museum (Ryhope, England) – twin rotative beam engines; built 1868. * Smethwick Engine (Smethwick, Birmingham, England) – oldest working steam engine in the world (1779). *

Stretham Old Engine Stretham Old Engine is a steam-powered engine just south of Stretham in Cambridgeshire, England, that was used to pump water from flood-affected areas of The Fens back into the River Great Ouse. It is one of only three surviving drainage engines ...

(Stretham, Cambridgeshire) – Statically preserved engine and scoop wheel. *

Strumpshaw Steam Museum Strumpshaw is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located on the northern bank of the River Yare around south-east of Norwich. The parish covers an area of and had a population of 602 in 245 households at the 20 ...

(Strumpshaw, England) - Features a now Compressed Air powered former beam engine from Addington. *Tees Cottage Pumping Station (Darlington, England) - a working rotative, two-cylinder

Woolf compound engine Arthur Woolf (1766, Camborne, Cornwall – 16 October 1837, Guernsey) was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure compound steam engine. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of the ...

, designed by Glenfield and Kennedy of Kilmarnock and built by Teasdale Bros, under T&C Hawksley, Civil Engineers, London. * The Boulton and Watt rotative beam engine (sun and planet type) at the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

(1786). Occasional working by pneumatics * The Caprington Colliery Newcomen engine at the

. Occasional working on pneumatics. *

The Henry Ford The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...

Museum (Dearborn, Michigan, US) - '' Fairbottom Bobs'', a Newcomen engine of the 1760s. * The London Museum of Water & Steam (Brentford, London, England) – five 'Cornish' engines (in original location) of which four are operational, together with two operational rotative beam engines (in museum), including the largest working 'Cornish' engine in the world with a Cylinder. * The Western Springs Water Works (Auckland, New Zealand) – 1877 double Woolf compound engine. In original location, restored in working order with Transport and Technology Museum built around it. The restoration of the Pumphouse and original Engineers cottage was awarded with the 2009 Award of Merit from UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation programme.

References

Bibliography

External links

Animation
of a Watt beam engine.

in

.
Archive footage
of the engines at Addington Pumping Station in July 1973, a year prior to decommissioning.
Working model beam engine
{{Steam engine configurations Steam engines History of the steam engine de:Balancier#Dampfmaschine