THE WATT AND THE TREVTTHICK ENGINES. 



the partner of Perrier and diaper, and therefore 

 declined to take any further interest in the engine. 



Mr. Edwards had before that been a partner with 

 Woolf, in a small engineering works in Lambeth ; and 

 the writer had also before that been a pupil of Woolf 's, 

 in the works of Messrs. Harvey and Co., of Hayle. 



The drawing of < La Belle Machine ' (Plate XIII.), of 

 1836, serves not only as a record of that time, but also 

 in conjunction with the drawing of Dolcoath engine of 

 1816, enables an engineer to form a sufficiently correct 

 idea of the Wheal Towan engine and boilers of 1827, 

 which in effective duty is scarcely excelled by the best 

 pumping engines of the present day. 



The events connected with those Paris engines bring 

 together the engineering works of Watt, Proney, Per- 

 rier, Trevithick, and Woolf, in the person of his once 

 partner, Edwards. The writer, when constructing ' La 

 Belle Machine/ had not the slightest knowledge of 

 those links, and heard the name and repute of his 

 engine by the following chance : 



In 1838 a passenger leaving the train of the Great 

 Western Eailway at Dray ton Station, asked the writer's 

 permission to walk on the line and examine its con- 

 struction. During a short conversation he mentioned the 

 having purchased at a sale in France the drawings ot 

 an engine known as 'La Belle Machine/ representing 

 the Cornish high-pressure expansive steam pumping 

 engine : a, steam-cylinder, 48 inches in diameter, 8-feet 

 stroke ; b, steam-pipe from boiler ; c, regulating steam- 

 valve, double beat ; d, regulating rod and handle for 

 steam-valve ; e, expansive steam-valve, double beat ; /, 

 balanced lever and rod for opening expansive valve ; g, 

 expansive clamp on plug-rod, with regulating rod and 

 thumb-screws ; A, cataract-rod for relieving expansive 



