Lap Engine
| Lap Engine | |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Type | Watt, rotative beam |
| Designer | James Watt |
| Maker | Boulton and Watt |
| Date | 1788 |
| Country of origin | England |
| Former operator | Soho Manufactory |
| Purpose | Driving factory machinery |
| Measurements | |
| Cylinders | 1 |
| Bore | 18.75 inches (47.6 cm) |
| Stroke | 4 feet (1.2 m) |
| Preservation | |
| Collection | Science Museum Group |
| Location | Science Museum, London |
| Working | No |
The Lap Engine is an early beam engine of 1788, built by James Watt. It is now preserved at the Science Museum, London.
It is important as both an early example of a beam engine by Boulton and Watt, and also mainly as illustrating an important innovative step in their development for its ability to produce rotary motion.[1][2]
Innovations
Watt did not invent the steam engine and there is no single 'Watt steam engine' as such. He developed a number of separate innovations, each of which improved the existing engines of the day, beginning with Newcomen's. The Lap Engine of 1788, also the Whitbread Brewery engine (1785), represent survivors of the first engines to show all of Watt's major improvements in one.[2]
Parallel motion
Rotative beam engines
Sun and planet gear
Is a method of converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion and was used in the first rotative beam engines.
The crankshaft was well known for centuries before Watt, mostly from its use in mining machinery powered by water wheels. However its use for a steam engine was covered by James Pickard's patent at this time..[3] Watt was unwilling to pay a license fee to use the crank and so sought an alternative. The sun and planet gear was invented by another Scottish engineer, William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt. Watt patented it in October 1781.
Centrifugal governor
History
Preservation
See also
- Whitbread Brewery engine – a similar engine of 1785, now preserved at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia
References
- ^ Dickinson, H.W.; Jenkins, R. (1981) [1927]. James Watt and the Steam Engine. Moorland Publishing. ISBN 0-903485-92-3.
- ^ a b Crowley, T.E. (1982). The Beam Engine. Senecio Publishing. ISBN 0-906831-02-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - ^ Catalogue of the Mechanical Engineering Collection in the Science Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. Read Books. 2007. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-4067-8053-6.
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