Oak Mount Mill, Wiseman Street - steam engine

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 26 Mar 1994

Also known as Wiseman Street Mills. I missed this running by about two weeks in 1979. It is now preserved and can be turned by an electric motor. Information from Colin Bowden: - Horizontal cross compound gear drive steam engine. Probably built by W. & J. Yates, Blackburn in 1887. Rebuilt by Burnley Ironworks Co. Ltd., Burnley, as works No.99 in 1912. New high pressure cylinder by Cole, Marchent & Morley Ltd., Bradford in 1947. Stopped when the mill closed in 1979. Preserved. Cylinders are 17.5/8" & 30" x 42". Corliss valves on the high pressure cylinder with governor-controlled trip gear and a simple slide valve on the low pressure cylinder. Steam pressure: c.140-150 psi, 60-62 rpm, 350 horsepower. Flywheel: 14ft diameter. This view is of the high pressure cylinder with the four semi-rotary Corliss valves all arranged at the top. The steam (inlet) valves are arranged inside the exhaust valves and have trip gear under the control of the Whitehead governor. The silver box on the governor is the electric stop motion that when tripped closes the steam valves and opens the vacuum breaker (seen bottom left), bringing the engine to a halt. Having the Corliss valves all at the top negates the usual self draining property of the exhaust valves and the engineer would need to be careful in thoroughly warming and draining the engine.

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