| Description | 33 horse power double-acting sun & planet engine, with 28½ inch cylinder, 7 foot stroke, parallel motion.
[The drawings for this engine differ in format to the usual portfolio contents. The main series of drawings show the engine, engine house and the entire mill, or various sections through the mill, and are therefore much larger than usual. Dimensions are given in English and French measurements. There is then a set of smaller drawings of the mill building, a few component drawings, and some memoranda and calculations about the engine and drawings.]
Large reverse drawings of the mill and engine, all bearing letter codes, as follows: ground plan of foundations; general view of Mill through the Engine House; Section of the Mill through the Boiler House; Section through the Engine & Boiler House; Section looking towards the Engine House; Section of the Mill looking from the Engine House; Plan of the spring beam floor; General view of the Engine & Mill Work; Front view of the Engine & Cross-section of the Boilers; Ground plan of the Engine and Mill Work"; Longitudinal Section of the Boiler, the Mill and its Works; Plan of the Cylinder and Boiler Tops, also a Plan of the Mill-stone, Catch Machine; Plan of the Dressing Mills and Wheat Machine Floor; Edge view of the Fly Wheels etc. and Front View of the Mill work. All from May and Aug. 1790.
Set of smaller drawings and items wrapped separately: 7 reverse elevations and sections of the mill building and floors, Feb. & Mar. 1790, all bearing letter codes; 4 coloured drawings with French captions showing floors of the mill, location by the Loire; unmarked external elevation; 2 notes of French measurements.
The following more standard items are also in the portfolio: rough general view of the engine; boiler - reverse plan and sections marked "Drawing of the Boiler Seating for a Smokeless fireplace for I. B. Nantes"; Parallel motion - reverse drawing marked "See Cartwright's marked BR 24 Jan. 1789"; working gear - coloured reverse plans, front and side views; pulley wheels for cold water pump - reverse; connecting rod and sun wheels - reverse; boiler steam pipes; undated external elevation, with floors marked in; memorandum "Explanation of the drawings for the Engine belonging to Messrs. Beconnais and Company" by James Watt; memorandum "Abstracts of letters from Nantes" by James Watt; calculations by Watt, including data from Maj. John Cartwright's engine and the Albion Mill engine; notes on starting the engine.
Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 133. Catalogue of Old Engines p. 58.
For Thebaudainé Jalabert & Cie. or Jac. Beconnais et Compagnie. Flour mill, Nantes. The engine is usually referred to on the drawings and in the Order Books as "I. B. Nantes." It is unclear exactly who owned the engine - outgoing letters are addressed to Thebaudainé Jalabert & Cie. in 1791, but the memoranda in this portfolio state that the engine was for Beconnais & Cie.
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