Austen's 80-inch pumping engine house on Fowey Consols
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Austen's 80-inch pumping engine house on Fowey Consols by Chris Hodrien 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
Austen's 80-inch pumping engine house on Fowey Consols
Image: © Chris Hodrien Taken: 3 Jun 2021
Fowey Consols was a successful copper mine and between 1822 and closure in 1867 produced over 315,000 tons of 8% copper ore and much smaller amounts of zinc ore, pyrites and nickel. During the mine's life it had at least ten Cornish beam engines but by far the most renowned was the one in this building from 1834 to some time after the mine's closure. Austen's 80-inch Cornish beam pump was designed by William West and constructed by Harvey & Company of Hayle. It was set to work in 1834 and its moment of fame came following a 24 hour trial on 23rd October 1835 when it achieved the stupendous 'duty' of 125,095,713 foot pounds (pounds of water raised one foot) on a bushel of coal. This record breaking duty was fiercely disputed and never to be repeated but was instrumental in bringing the engine to the attention of waterworks' engineers who adopted the Cornish engine. The empty house remains as a silent testament to a famous machine.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
50.373105
Longitude
-4.698232