National Museums Collection Centre, Granton

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 14 Apr 2003

This is a large indoor store for the National Museum of Scotland and I was fortunate enough to arrange a visit while on holiday in that part of the world. I understand the building is a lot more crowded now. It is a vast improvement on the old store that I visited at Newbattle Abbey or thereabouts. The main focus of this photograph is a massive steam powered vacuum pump built in 1920 by Harvey Engineering company of Glasgow. This was used at the Thames Refinery, Silvertown of Tate & Lyle. This worked until 1976 and was used to draw the vacuum on a set of multiple effect evaporators as part of the sugar refining process. It is very basic, solid engineering for 1920. The big cylinder on the right is the vacuum pump and is fitted with a slide valve for maximum effectiveness. It is easy to mistake it for a steam cylinder but this engine only has one steam cylinder (to the left).

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