Woolf compound
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Arthur Woolf (1766, Camborne,
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 ...
– 16 October 1837, Guernsey) was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure
compound steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...
. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of the Cornish engine. Woolf left Cornwall in 1785 to work for Joseph Bramah's engineering works in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. He worked there and at other firms as an engineer and engine builder until 1811 experimenting with high pressure steam and a much improved boiler. Whereupon he returned to Cornwall. Michael Loam, inventor of the
man engine A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist the miners' journeys to and from the working levels. It was invented in Germany in the 19th century and was a prominent feature of tin an ...
, was trained by him. When he returned to Cornwall, beam engine designs were crude, shackled by outdated
Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
patents and poor engineering, struggling to compete with large water wheels, even used underground. He learned from Bramah that to move forward meant adopting much improved engineering techniques, for it was Bramah who invented quality control. Woolf was chief engineer to Harvey & Co of Hayle, the leading engineering and foundry works, at this time the largest in the world. They eventually swallowed up the rival Copperhouse Foundry run by Sandys, Carne and Vivian. For very many years they were the leading firm worldwide for drainage engines, even supplying 3 eight-beamed pumping engines to the Dutch government to drain the
Haarlemmermeer Haarlemmermeer () is a municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Haarlemmermeer is a polder, consisting of land reclaimed from water. The name Haarlemmermeer means 'Haarlem's lake', referring to the body of wate ...
(see Museum De Cruquius). By the time Woolf retired in 1836 the Cornish engine, largely due to his efforts, was a thing of magnificent beauty and efficiency. In 1803, Woolf obtained a patent on an improved boiler for producing high pressure steam. In 1804, he patented his best-known invention, a
compound steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...
.


Woolf's compound engine

Woolf's engine was a parallel compound engineLike the tandem compound engine, the two cylinders worked in phase. with two cylinders in which the steam worked in succession. These were both coupled to the same end of the beam of the engine. The operation of the engine can be described as being a high-pressure cylinder of
Trevithick Trevithick ( ) is a Cornish surname, and may refer to: * Francis Trevithick (1812–1877), one of the first locomotive engineers of the London and North Western Railway * Jonathan Trevethick (1864–1939), New Zealand politician * Paul Trevithic ...
's high-pressure simple expansion engine, followed by a condensing cylinder of Watt's design. Woolf had worked as an engine erector for Hornblower and was familiar with his earlier work on compound engines. As a Cornishman, he was also familiar with Trevithick and his newly developed high-pressure 'puffer' engines that were then entering service. He recognised that, even with the new principle of expansion, the exhaust from a Trevithick engine was still of a comparable pressure to the inlet pressure of a Watt engine. From this step, it was a relatively simple matter to couple the two together. For most uses, the cylinders of the engine were double-acting. Opposing sides of the high- and low-pressure cylinders were cross-connected to each other. Where engines were used for pumping,Mine pumping engines commonly used single-acting
plunger pump A plunger pump is a type of positive displacement pump where the high-pressure seal is stationary and a smooth cylindrical plunger slides through the seal. This makes them different from piston pumps and allows them to be used at higher pressures. ...
s, where their load was only required to be driven in one direction.
Woolf engines were also built with paired single-acting cylinders. Examples of Woolf compound
rotative beam engine 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 Newc ...
s may be seen at
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 ...
, Blagdon Lake, Claymills Pumping Station, The Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology, and the Western Springs Pumphouse, now part of the
Museum of Transport and Technology The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a science and technology museum located in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. It is located close to the Western Springs Stadium, Auckland Zoo and the Western Springs Park. The museum has l ...
Auckland, New Zealand.


See also

*
Benjamin Hick Benjamin Hick (1 August 1790 – 9 September 1842) was an English civil and mechanical engineer, art collector and patron; his improvements to the steam engine and invention of scientific tools were held in high esteem by the engineering p ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

*T. R. Harris, ''Arthur Woolf: The Cornish Engineer 1766-1837'', (Truro: Bradford Barton Ltd., 1966). *Edmund Vales, ''The Harveys of Hayle'' (Truro: D. B. Barton, 1966).


External links


Britannica Online entry (subscription required) A. Navolari and G. Verbong, "The Development of Steam Power Technology:Cornwall and the compound engine, an evolutionary interpretation", Eindhoven University, 2001
!-- Broken link: authors are likely to be Alessandro Nuvolari and Bart Verspagen -->[''Try searchin
ECIS
research centre at Eindhoven University of Technology'' ]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolf, Arthur 1766 births 1837 deaths Inventors from Cornwall Engineers from Cornwall British steam engine engineers People from Camborne