OneGuyFromBarlick

Doesn't immediately shout water power does it. This is Nibthwaite Furnace, Colton in what was Westmorland.

The furnace hearth at Nibthwaite.

The water turbine that replaced the wheel at Nibthwaite Furnace. The power was used to drive the bellows.

The water resource at Nibthwaite. The furnace pond on the right is fed from a weir further up the river. A considerable investment!

For water power you need a good fall! The Passaic river falling 80ft into a ravine at Paterson, New Jersey. This was the resource that drove the town in the 19th century.

Stanley, watch this and drool at some large pump engines, in the first film, about 13 mins. in, they refer to using a crane to start it if it stopped on TDC, they had two men with axes on stand by to cut the ropes !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa3luVezzq4

No wonder they never wore out! So slow.....

Here's one of the large beam engines at Kew Bridge waterworks in 1977.

The engineer's controls on the ground floor at Kew Bridge pumping works.

The Bateman and Sheratt engine at Shirley's Bone mill Etruria.

The main gear train at Shirley's Bone Mill.

The kiln at the bone mill where the bones were calcined before grinding. All sorts of bone was used, quite a bit was imported and even included elephant bone. There was reason to suspect that human bone was also found at times. The ground bone was of course used as an additive to China Clay to make the finest bone china.

One of the grinding pans at Shirley's Bone Mill, Etruria. The arms drove the large stone blocks round and it was these stones rubbing against the stone base that reduced the calcined bone and water to a fine slurry that was dried and used in the china clay potteries.

The original Lancashire boiler at the bone mill. The back part had been cut off during renovations to the modern factory next door and it was replaced by a smaller boiler. This was in 1989.

Water mills came in all shapes and sizes. This is the old corn mill on the Isle of Eigg.

You have to keep your eyes peeled when looking for evidence of corn-milling. 1979 at Booth Bridge, Thornton in Craven. The stone with the diagonal marks has been cut from an old mill-stone. Big stones never moved far from their original location.

Same place, Booth Bridge. Rack stones re-used to build a wall. These stone held the spars with supported the horse hair blanket over a fire which was the essential element of a corn-drying kiln. The stones can speak if you listen hard enough!

Catch 'em young! A small snapper at Worth Valley railway in 1989. What a wonderful enterprise it was, rescuing a small branch line.

Click to enlarge. Part of the original McNaught drawings for the 1892 engine at Ellenroad.

Steam engines came in all sorts of configurations. This is a German wall-mounted engine. There was one in a mill in Colne put in to supplement the main engine. I've forgotten the name of the mill but the flywheel poked out through the wall into the street and had a wooden covering. Can anyone remember which it was?

Bancroft engine sheeted up for Xmas 1976. Everyone deserves a rest!

A sad picture. Bancroft dam being filled in, 1980

The engine house in 2000. No dam, just a grassy bank.....

The small water courses that were essential to the early industry are often forgotten. This is the possible tail race from the small mill at Gillians across the road from the three storey building. The water came from a dam in Bancrofts land which can still be seen. This is under the gable end of the larger building. Remember that Mitchell's Mill at Clough had the water rights to Gillians Beck which would have been the obvious power source.

Stanley did you ever come across this method of tansferring line shafts at 90 deg. ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsUF1wP22iM

No! They mustn't have had a way of making bevel gears! Far too complicated, no wonder it never caught on! Imagine it running at 200rpm!



The site of the dam just below Bancrofts Farm which served the watermill at Gillians.