Taylor's Shaft Cornish beam pumping engine - the top chamber
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Taylor's Shaft Cornish beam pumping engine - the top chamber by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Taylor's Shaft Cornish beam pumping engine - the top chamber
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 7 Jun 2012
This is the 'indoor end' of the beam that is attached to the piston in the steam cylinder via Watt's parallel motion. The pivot point is seen on the right and the 'outdoor' end is literally outside the engine house with the pump rods attached. The steam piston makes a 10' stroke and the pumps make a 9' stroke. The green cross beam above is known as the 'catch wings' and if the engine makes too long a stroke, engages with massive wooden 'spring beams' to try to prevent damage from the piston striking the cylinder bottom. The beam consists of two massive cast iron flitches and in total weighs 52.5 tons. The National Trust helpfully equates this to 290 cows (why? - Mini cars would perhaps mean more to the youth of today).
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
50.231064
Longitude
-5.262652