Description
Medium: Engineering Drawing.
Summary: Hand-coloured ink and watercolour drawing showing a general cross-section of an atmospheric condensing beam pumping engine designed by James Watt and supplied by the firm Bolton & Watt, of Birmingham, to the Margaret Mine, at Wanlockhead, Dumfries, Scotland, in 1785-86. Scale: 1/3 inch to 1 foot. The drawing is part of a set of technical drawings supplied by the manufacturers showing general arrangements, details of foundations and key components for a 55-inch (1397 mm) bore x 8 foot (2438 mm) stroke single-acting single-cylinder steam pumping engine ordered for the Margaret Mine by Gilbert Meason, general manager of the Wanlockhead Mining Company, in June 1785. Labelled as sheet No.1, it shows a longitudinal cross-sectional elevation through the three-storey engine house and key components of the engine including the steam cylinder and condenser. The drawing is believed to have been executed by James Watt, or an assistant working under his direction, and includes a number of annotations written in blue ink in what appears to be Watt's hand, giving selected dimensions of the general assembly and other notes to the erectors.
The engine depicted was built to replace a smaller 36-inch (914 mm) bore Boulton & Watt pumping engine erected in 1778-79, which was found to be too underpowered to cope with the drainage load as the mine workings went deeper. At the time that both Watt engines were built for the Wanlockhead mines, Boulton & Watt had not yet established their Soho Foundry (1795), and it was their general practise to just supply drawings for the erection of their engines and organise for the supply of key components from a number of third-party engineering firms across northern England and the midlands. Generally a skilled erector would be sent by Boulton & Watt to supervise installation and commissioning of each engine, but in the case of the Wanlockhead engines, none of Boulton & Watt's regular experts were available, so the work was left in the hands of the mining company's engineer George Symington, assisted by his younger brother, William Symington. The experience would provide one of the most important formative events in the subsequent career of twenty-one year old William, and would help set him on the course of a life-long interest in the applications and improvements of steam technology.
Wanlockhead is a historic mining village situated in the Lowther Hills region of the Scottish Southern Uplands, at the head of the Mennock Pass. It is noted for being Scotland's highest village at an average elevation of 1,531 feet (467 m) above sea level. The area has been exploited since at least Roman times for its mineral resources, which include deposits of lead, zinc, copper, silver and gold. The current village was founded in 1680 when Sir James Stampfield built a lead smelting plant and workers' cottages. Beam pumps powered by a self-acting water bucket were introduced to drain the Wanlockhead mines in 1745. The Wanlockhead Mining Company was formed by Ronald Crawford and associates in 1755, and energetically exploited the area's rich lead veins over the following sixty years, working deposits to depths of over 540 feet (165 m), and producing 47,420 tons of lead. They were the first Scottish mine owners outside the Edinburgh coalfields to adopt seam powered pumping technology.
William Symington appears to have kept several of the original Wanlockhead Steam Engine drawings as a memento of his involvement and would later pass them onto his second-oldest son, William Symington junior (c.1802-1867), who bought the surviving drawings to Australia when he emigrated in 1855. They were subsequently donated to Museum Victoria by a descendant of the family.
Physical description: WANLOCKHEAD ENGINE DRAWING NO. 1 BY JAMES WATT. JUNE 1785. FURTHER DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED. TO BE NUMBERED.
Image Licence
Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
Image Credit
Image source Museums Victoria
Location
Wanlockhead, Scotland
Country
Scotland
Tags
Category
Buildings & Architecture
