Ryhope Pumping Station - flywheel and governor

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Ryhope Pumping Station - flywheel and governor 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

Ryhope Pumping Station - flywheel and governor

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 28 May 1989

This building contains two Woolf compound beam engines built in 1868 by R & W Hawthorn and in use until 1967. The cylinders are 27.5" x 5'4" and 45" x 8'. The beams are 33' between end centres and weigh 22 tons. The flywheels are 24' diameter and weigh 18 tons. The engines used steam at 35 psi, ran at 10 rpm and delivered 40,000 gallons per hour against a 243' head. This shows part of the flywheel and the Watt type conical pendulum governor. The latter is driven from the crankshaft that is below the driving floor level. The curved rack inside the flywheel's rim is for barring the engine round with a long crowbar acting against the spokes. At least one spoke is always over the rack.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
54.865296
Longitude
-1.372088