Beam engine

The remains of a beam engine at Wanlockhead

A beam engine is a design of stationary steam engine.

In a beam engine, the piston is mounted vertically, and the piston rod does not connect directly to the connecting rod, but instead to a rocker or beam above both the piston and flywheel. The beam is pivoted in the middle, with the cylinder on one side and the flywheel, which incorporates the crank, on the other. The connecting rod connects to the opposite end of the beam to the piston rod, and then to the flywheel.

Beam engines were extensively used to power pumps on the English canal system when it was expanded by means of locks early in the industrial revolution, and also to drain water from mines in the same period, and as winding engines.

The beam engine was developed from the Newcomen steam engine, which it replaced. James Watt is traditionally credited with much of its development, although these claims have more recently been questioned.

The Beam engine was considerably improved and enlarged in the tin and copper rich areas of south west England, which enabled the draining of the deep mines that existed there. Consequently the Cornish beam engines became world famous, as they remain the most massive beam engines ever constructed.

See also

• Markfield Beam Engine

• Stationary engine

• Steam engine

• Cornish engine

External links

• Animation of a Watt beam engine.

• The oldest surviving mine engine in Cornwall.

• Kew Bridge Steam Museum http://www.kbsm.org One of the largest collection of rotative and Cornish beam engines in the UK, based in West London. In steam every weekend.