| Description | Pumping and Canal Engines. Single-acting engine, with 32 inch cylinder, 8 foot stroke, chain connection.
Plan of the engine, round boiler and pump, and section of pump working barrel, clack etc. on the same sheet marked "bucket & clack same kind as ordered for Wrensnest". Drawing is marked "Navigation Engine No. 2" and the captions are in Watt's hand.
Catalogue of Old Engines p. 134.
Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 19 [in the Drawing Office Index only]
Catalogue of Old Engines p. 134.
For the Birmingham Canal Co. Smethwick locks. The engine began work in 1779 and worked until 1891. Many of the parts were similar to those for the engine for John Gilbert at Donnington Wood, and the two engines shared some drawings and a printed components list. The engine was dismantled and re-erected at the Canal Co.'s Ocker Hill depot at Tipton in 1897. The engine was presented to the Birmingham Museum of Science & Industry in 1959, and is usually referred to as "The Smethwick Engine". It is currently on display in Thinktank at Millenium Point, Birmingham.
This drawing was originally kept with the main set of drawings in Book No. 19, later Portfolio 596. However at some point it was mis-filed with the drawings for the second Smethwick engine in Book No. 512, later Portfolio 597. It thus avoided going missing with the rest of the drawings for the the first Smethwick engine.
See also: Portfolio 5/699a (Donnington Wood engine), Incoming Correspondence.
Published references: "The Smethwick Engine", J. H. Andrew, Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Autumn 1985. |