The Corliss Steam Engine on the Pawnee County Fairgrounds in
Pawnee, Oklahoma
Pawnee ( Pawnee: Paári, iow, Páñi Chína) is a city and county seat of Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The town is northeast of Stillwater at the junction of U.S. Route 64 and State Highway 18.
It was named for the Pawnee tribe, ...
is a
Corliss steam engine
A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine) is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island.
Engines ...
that was built 1912.
[
*] It and a twin sister engine were originally built for the Blackwell Zinc Co., of
Blackwell, Oklahoma
Blackwell is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States, located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 177 and State Highway 11 along Interstate 35 (exit #222). The population was 7,092 at the 2010 census and 6,085 in the 2020 Census. Blackwel ...
. It powered most of the electricity-powered machinery in the 1000-employee zinc smelter plant, until the plant closed in 1973.
[
It was later donated to the Oklahoma Steam Thresher Association, disassembled, and restored in its own building on the Pawnee County Fairgrounds.][ One source on the web has 6 photos of the engine displayed there."Corliss Steam Engine" landmark hunter.com]
May 2007. Accessed November 19, 2016.
NRHP listing
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on May 7, 1979, with NRIS number 79002016.[ The application states that the significance of this engine is:"...(1) its position of pre-eminence in the history of American technology, (2) its role in the Industrial development of Oklahoma, and (3) its survival as one of the country's few remaining functional Corliss Engines."]
History of Corliss steam engines
A steam engine fitted with rotary valves and having variable valve timing was invented by and named for an American Engineer, George Henry Corliss, in 1849. Engines fitted with Corliss valve gear offered the best thermal efficiency
In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency (\eta_) is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, steam turbine, steam engine, boiler, furnace, refrigerator, ACs etc.
For a ...
of any type of stationary steam engine until the refinement of the uniflow steam engine
The uniflow type of steam engine uses steam that flows in one direction only in each half of the cylinder. Thermal efficiency is increased by having a temperature gradient along the cylinder. Steam always enters at the hot ends of the cylinder and ...
and steam turbine in the 20th century. Corliss' engines were generally about 30 percent more fuel efficient than conventional steam engines with fixed cutoff.[Rosenberg and Trajtenberg, A General Purpose Technology at Work, ''The Journal of Economic History, 64,'' 1 (March 2004) page 75] This increased efficiency made steam power more economical than water power, allowing industrial development away from millponds.[ Diana Muir, ]Reflections in Bullough's Pond
''Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England'' is a book by Diana Muir. The Providence Journal called ''Bullough’s Pond'' "a masterpiece," and Publishers Weekly called it "lyrical". The Massachusetts Center for the Book ...
, University Press of New England
The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New Hampsh ...
, p. 173.
Description of the Pawnee engine
The Corliss engine now displayed in Pawnee was part of an Allis-Chalmers
Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial set ...
steam electric generating plant. It is a large piece of machinery in every respect, being long by wide and weighing 110 tons. The flywheel is in diameter and weighs 10 tons. The cylinder has a bore with a stroke.
See also
Corliss Steam Engine
A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine) is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island.
Engines ...
References
Steam engines
Preserved stationary steam engines
Buildings and structures in Pawnee County, Oklahoma
Industrial equipment on the National Register of Historic Places
Pawnee, Oklahoma
National Register of Historic Places in Pawnee County, Oklahoma
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