MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Stanley]

No takers? I'll give it until dinnertime.

[Tizer]

It looks a bit like Stephenson's rocket but not the same. A longer boiler and propulsion via cogged centre driving wheels and cogged rails., i.e. a rack railway. Something to do with a man whose name begins with B perhaps?

[Stanley]

You've got it Peter, finish it off...

[plaques]

Not sure but didn't Stevenson have a narrow gauge engine for the quarries in Yorkshire.

[Stanley]

You're all on the right lines but you haven't got the engineer. He was quite important....

[Steeplejerk]

Brunnel

[Stanley]

No Tom but it does start with a 'B'. (And he named it after a city in Western Spain....)

[Big Kev]

John Blenkinsop? Was the engine Salamanca?

[Wendyf]

Salamanca built by Matthew Murray for Blenkinsop to use on the Middleton Railway. There was a Matthew Murray School in Leeds when I was a lass, I wonder if there was a connection?

[Stanley]

That's the one Kev. Well done.
Yes Wendy, Murray was a very good engineer and was an important figure in Leeds. One of the great Victorian Engineers who made our world. (LINK)

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Tizer]

It would make a good art installation and probably win first prize in a competition!

[Stanley]

Not easy and I shall review it at dinnertime. Clue, it was part of the plant at Ellenroad.

[Steeplejerk]

To pump water from the weir

[Stanley]

Correct Tom and by coincidence it was made by Weir of Glasgow.
This is one of the biggest steam pumps they made for boiler feeding and was originally bought during the war by ICI for pumping acid. Called in the trade a three legger because usually they only had two legs to support the steam cylinder on top.
Next one?

[Tizer]

There is something that's probably unique about this photo. What is it?

[Steeplejerk]

Lancashire boiler not cornish

[Stanley]

First time I've ever seen a brick extension on a metal chimney. That's unusual!

[Tizer]

I'm not surprised that you two know the difference between Lancashire and Cornish boilers! Any idea why the chimney is built that way? The top is just missed off the photo but is normal.)

[Stanley]

Was that the answer?
As to why they did it, the reason for extending a chimney is to improve the draught to get more efficient coal burning in the boiler furnaces. A stubby metal chimney like that hardly looks adequate for a Lancashire boiler with two furnaces. as for the reason for using brick, who knows? They must have had a very ambitious brickie on site. Many Cornish mine chimneys have brick extensions. I have never known for certain whether this was just the preferred construction method or whether they had realised they would be more efficient with more draught. As a guide, Bancroft was a very big Lancashire boiler and the chimney was too short at 130 feet.

[Steeplejerk]

The brickwork might be some old form of cladding for the chimney rockwool and aluminium on modern chimneys,I don't really know just guessing

[Tizer]

Was that the answer?

It's correct but it wasn't the boiler that I was focused on but the unusual chimney. Yes, it's metal below and brick above. The small engine house was built with whatever was lying around and they used an old boiler fire tube for the stack. Not surprisingly it didn't provide enough draft so they built it higher with bricks!

The reason normal Cornish engine houses had the lower part in stone and the upper in brick is said to be because large granite blocks could be cut for the lower part but as the chimney narrowed they couldn't (in those days) easily cut small blocks in granite so it became standard practice to do the rest in brick. I guess they'd found out by trial and error in the distant past that they needed chimneys taller than could be made only in granite. Another suggestion I've seen is that the thin brick was used at the top because it would heat up faster and give better draught, but I'd argue that it would also loose heat faster. Below is the caption from the photo which is in the same book as my previous Mystery Object. I'm surprised the boiler tube looks to be without any insulation but perhaps it had been removed by the time the photo was take.

[Stanley]

Peter, The chimney was what I pointed out, I've never seen one made like that before. The thickness of the brickwork in a chimney had negligible effect on the draught. The significant factor in calculating draught are gas temperature at base, height and area of bore of the stack. That furnace tube would be about 30ft long and 3ft in diameter. If the brick extension was about 30 ft that would give a 60ft stack which couldn't give sufficient draught to run the boiler at maximum output but may have been enough for the duty placed on it. From the script you provided it looks like a shoe string operation and they would be using what was to hand. If it worked it would do.



Here's a similar subject. What can you tell me about these four boilers at Chatterly Whitfield Colliery in Staffordshire?

[Tizer]

Were they re-used from railway locomotives?