INDUSTRIES 



This engine, being found inadequate to deal 

 with the quantity of water, was supplemented 

 by a duplicate engine. In 1782 both these 

 engines were replaced by an engine that was, 

 at that day, regarded as a great mechanical 

 wonder. It was an atmospheric engine with 

 a cylinder 70 in. diameter and 6 ft. stroke. 

 It had an air pump 3 ft. in diameter and 

 3 ft. stroke. The beam was oak, 24 ft. long, 

 21 in. deep and 19 in. broad. There were 

 four lifts of pumps, the two top sets 1 1 in. 

 and the two bottom sets nf in. diameter; 

 and three malleable iron boilers, each 13 ft. 

 6 in. diameter, 9 ft. 4 in. high, with hemi- 

 spherical tops. This engine continued at work 

 until 1866, when the pit was abandoned. 



Prior to the abandonment of the Clifton 

 Collieries in 1781, Sir James Lowther had 

 erected two large atmospheric engines, viz. 

 one near the Marron at Little Clifton, and 

 the other at Reelfitz Pit, sunk in 1780, 

 near the Marron, a quarter of a mile from 

 the Derwent. The latter was very powerful, 

 having a cylinder cast in two lengths, 60 in. 

 diameter, with 8 ft. stroke, working two 1 2 in. 

 pumps, each lifting from the Main Band 35 

 fathoms. 



In 1794 Mr. John Christian Curwen sunk 

 Lady Pit, near the shore at Workington, 

 where he erected both large pumping and 

 winding engines of the best designs in those 

 days. 



Although William Pit, Whitehaven, had 

 been sunk to the Main Band a depth of 95 

 fathoms in 1805, the permanent pumping 

 engine thereat was not erected until 1810. 

 The cylinder, open-topped, was 80 in. diameter, 

 with 9 ft. stroke. There were four haystack 

 boilers, 13 ft. diameter, which supplied steam 

 at 5 lb. pressure per square inch. The 

 original wood beam was afterwards replaced 

 by a cast-iron one with parallel motion at 

 each end. The pumps, 12 in. diameter, were 

 four bucket-lifts. 



At Isabella Pit, Workington, sunk by Mr. 

 Curwen, 1812 18, there was a pumping- 

 engine said to have been the most powerful 

 that had been erected in Cumberland up to 

 that time. It had a cylinder 66 in. diameter, 

 9 ft. stroke ; worked six sets of pumps, four of 

 them being 16 in. diameter, down to a depth 

 of 130 fathoms; and was on Boulton and 

 Watt's principle. 



Since the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury there have been many improvements made 

 in pumping-engines, but it is not proposed to 

 deal any further here with their evolution than 

 by describing two of the best engines now at 

 work in the coalfields. 



The pumping-engine at Wellington Pit, 



Whitehaven, is the most powerful in the 

 district. It is a high pressure, single-acting 

 inverted Cornish engine, erected for the Earl 

 of Lonsdale in 1866. The steam cylinder 

 is vertical, 90 in. diameter with 10 ft. stroke, 

 and it has three double-beat equilibrium valves. 

 The beam, placed underneath the cylinder, is 

 formed of two wrought iron parallel plates, of 

 girder section, each 30 ft. in length by 7 ft. 

 deep in the centre, tapering to 3 ft. at each end. 

 The steam acts on the top side of the piston 

 only, the piston rod forcing one end of the 

 beam, which is cushioned, down 10 ft., while 

 the pump rods and lower column are raised 

 10 ft. at the other end of the beam, also 

 cushioned. In the up-stroke of the piston 

 the steam is in equilibrium, and the surplus 

 weight of rods forces up the two upper 

 columns of water. 



The water is pumped from a depth of 140 

 fathoms in three lifts, the top and middle sets 

 having 20 in. rams, and the bottom set a 

 2o in. bucket. 



At William Pit, Whitehaven, is a pumping- 

 engine of quite a different type. It superseded 

 in 1899 the old atmospheric engine described 

 above. It is placed 8 fathoms below the Main 

 Band, and forces the water through a main 

 10 in. diameter, to the surface, and was con- 

 structed for the Whitehaven Colliery Com- 

 pany. It may be described as a horizontal 

 high-pressure, duplex ram-pumping engine 

 with suction condenser. The cylinders are 

 30 in. diameter with 1 8 in. stroke, and the 

 rams are 10 in. diameter. 



It is remarkable that the steam-engine should 

 have been seventy years in use for pumping before 

 any attempt was made to apply.it to winding 

 in pits. Perhaps the reason was that the early 

 engineers did not know that rectilinear could 

 be converted into rotary motion by means of 

 the crank, and how the engine could be 

 reversed. 



The first recorded departure from winding 

 by horse-gins was made at George Pit, White- 

 haven, in 1787, where, on the same shaft as 

 the rope-rolls, was an overshot water-wheel 

 driven by the water pumped by the 'fire- 

 engine.' 



The first winding-engine, or ' rotative 

 machine ' in West Cumberland, was prob- 

 ably that erected at Davy Pit, Whitehaven, 

 in 1791, by Messrs. Heslop & Millward, 

 Seaton Iron Works, Workington. It had 

 two open-topped cylinders, one on each 

 side of the main centre of the beam (which 

 was made of wood), called respectively the 

 hot cylinder and the cold cylinder. The 

 steam, on being admitted under the piston in 

 the larger or hot cylinder, raised it ; the re- 



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