| Description | Crank Engines. (16 items).
294. Koops Tate & Co. (The Straw Paper Co.), London (KT). Feb., Jun. 1801, Mar., Feb. 1802, May 1803. 16 items.
80 horse power double-acting crank engine, with 43 inch cylinder, 8 foot stroke, parallel motion, cast iron beam, cast iron connecting rod.
Coloured original and reverse general view of the engine with side view of hot water pump beam, reverse plan of the engine and longitudinal section of the boiler; reverse ground plan and sections of the engine and boiler houses and framing (these drawings show 3 boilers, whereas the later views of the engine show 2; one of the drawings has a star chart pencilled on the back), drawings of the cistern, glands and plate; fly wheel - original and reverse drawings; parallel motion - coloured original and reverse drawings; parts of the parallel motion - reverse drawings; working gear - reverse front and side views; plan of the cylinder, air pump and condenser, marked "This fair copy made Jul. 1827", with a plan of cylinder, air pump and condenser for Philips Wood & Lee dated 21 Feb. 1803 on the same sheet; large ground plan and elevation of the mill showing location of engine, millwork, shafts, machinery etc.
Also coloured original front and side views of the altered working gear for Peckover & Bellamy, May 1803. All the drawings except those of the mill bear letter codes.
Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 417. Catalogue of Old Engines p. 114.
For Matthias Koops, William Tate and company, known as the Straw Paper Co. Paper mill, Millbank, London, variously referred to as the Chelsea Mill, Thames Bank Mill or Westminster Mill. This was the second engine for Koops' paper mill, the first being an 8 horse power sun & planet engine originally intended for W. T. Stretton's brewery [see Portfolio 5/206]. This 80 horse engine was never erected at the Chelsea Mill, as the company collapsed before it was completed. It was re-purchased by Boulton Watt & Co. and sold to Peckover & Bellamy for a corn and oil mill at near Wisbech. Peckover & Bellamy later became Archer Nicholson & Co., and in 1808 they sold the engine to Kenyon Firth & Co. of Sheffield, who used it for rolling and powering grindstones.
Published references: R. Hills, "The Chelsea Mill of the Straw Paper Company", in The London Papers, Studies in British Paper History, Vol. III Part One (ed. P. Bower & D. Chamberlain, published as part of The Quarterly: The Journal of the British Association of Paper Historians, No. 39, Jul. 2001 - ground plan and elevation of the mill, general view of the engine; Tann, p. 168 - ground plan of the mill. |