| Description | Engine Designs by James Watt, Edward Bull and Jonathan Hornblower’s Engines, Dutch Windmill etc. (9 items).
1347. Little Engines and Wheel Carriage. 1786 [?], 1787. 9 items.
Small engines, one with a 9 inch cylinder, the other with a 6 inch cylinder and 12 inch stroke.
Little Engine:
Section of engine with 9 inch cylinder and section of the nozzles - marked "Book 87".
Section of engine and nozzles - this drawing is marked "Book 87" and is similar to the above, but on a smaller scale, and bears no dimensions.
Front and side views of fly wheel and framing - marked "Book 87" but with no dimensions.
Side view of the nozzles and working gear and plan of the engine and framing - marked "Book 87" but with no dimensions.
Side view and plan of the condenser [?] - reverse drawing marked "Book 87", with dimensions.
Wheel Carriage [?]:
Section of engine with 6 inch cylinder and 12 inch stroke, and front view of engine with the piston rod connected to a crosshead - this drawing has been marked "Steam carriage".
Reverse copy of the above drawing - this drawing is marked "Book 87" but bears no dimensions or other notes.
Similar drawing to the above, with plan of the engine and extensive pencil alterations - this drawing is marked "W. C." and appears to show a wheel carriage.
Portfolio cover marked "Wheel Carriage".
Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 87. Catalogue of Old Engines p. 338.
Designs for little engines, and possibly drawings of a steam-powered "wheel carriage". John Southern's List of Books notes that in 1786 he opened a book for drawings of "wheel carriages" and numbered it 86. The next book, No. 87, was for drawings of "Little Engines", one with a 9 inch cylinder and 2 foot stroke, the other with a 6 inch cylinder and 1 foot 6 inch stroke. This book was opened in 1787 and the Drawings Day Book shows that three drawings of the cylinder, nozzles, working gear and frame of a little engine were made in Nov. of that year. Southern's Memoranda Book also contains calculations for small engines of the size recorded in the List of Books.
The first five drawings in the portfolio clearly depict a small beam engine with sun & planet gear. The next three, showing front and side views of a small engine mounted on a frame, are less clear. The side views show an engine with the piston rod connected to a beam or bar, which pivots at the opposite end to the piston rod, as opposed to pivotting in the middle. The front view show the piston rod connected to a crosshead. The crosshead is connected to vertical descending rods which work crank shafts. Whether these drawings actually depict a "wheel carriage" is not clear. Only the third, much rougher drawing with the extensive pencil alterations appears to show road wheels. However the fact that the second drawing is marked "Book 87" suggests that they in fact show designs for a small stationary engine.
Henry Hazleton mis-identified all these drawings as being of wheel carriages. He included them in Section O of the Catalogue of Old Engines, but he did not allocate them a portfolio number.
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