Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Machine - Steam Engine, Tangyes engineering, Mid-1880s
... ...Thomas Aldridge Weston...The business encouraged inventors to join the company and develop their patents there, as happened with Weston’s differential pulley block, invented by the Englishman Thomas Aldridge Weston in 1854. Tangye bought the patent in 1858, giving the firm the sole right to manufacture it. ...The business encouraged inventors to join the company and develop their patents there, as happened with Weston’s differential pulley block, invented by the Englishman Thomas Aldridge Weston in 1854. Tangye bought the patent in 1858, giving the firm the sole right to manufacture it. ...
This Tangye B-size, single-cylinder, horizontal steam engine was likely manufactured in England around the mid-1880s. It was distributed by Melbourne machinery merchants Cameron & Sutherland, which also operated in Bendigo and Ballarat. A local cheese maker once used the engine to drive factory equipment. It was later donated to the Warrnambool Technical School, which then donated it to Flagstaff Hill to add to its historical steam engine collection. Between its manufacture and its donation to Flagstaff Hill, the governor had been replaced by the current Pickering governor.
This engine design was very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When connected and powered up, the engine could drive an overhead line shaft via a flat belt off its flywheel. The line shaft would then drive the machinery via flat belts. It could drive virtually any type of machinery, such as water and sewerage pumps, mine elevators, winches, cranes, metal forges, air blowers, and marine machinery.
This engine features a mechanical governor, which controls the speed of the engine regardless of whether it is under load. It also has a water pump built into the valve rod, which is used to supply the boiler with water. Steam enters the cylinder via a slide valve and applies pressure to the piston; it is like a modern internal combustion engine, but in the case of the steam engine, the pressure is exerted in turn on either side of the piston. In other words, the connecting rod is pushed by steam via the piston and piston rod and then pulled back again by steam pushing on the opposite side of the piston. Thus, power is exerted almost continuously, except at the end of each piston stroke, when it reverses direction.
In the 1880s, many local butter and cheese manufacturers installed Tangye steam engines to power their machinery. A comprehensive article in the Gippsland Mercury in September 1889 extolled the magnificence of the Farnham Butter Factory in Dennington, Warrnambool, and described how one Tangye engine was used to drive several machines in the cheese- and butter-making processes. A report in the Warragul Guardian in December 1890 notes that the newly opened Warrnambool Butter Factory used a Tangye steam engine to pump water from a 60-foot well.
Tangye:
Richard Tangye (1833–1906) and four of his brothers—James, Joseph, Edward, and George—were the sons of Joseph Tangye, a Quaker Cornish miner. In 1857, they founded the engineering firm Richard Tangye & Brothers in Birmingham, UK. In 1860, the firm became Tangye Brothers and moved to Cornwall Works in Birmingham. The business encouraged inventors to join the company and develop their patents there, as happened with Weston’s differential pulley block, invented by the Englishman Thomas Aldridge Weston in 1854. Tangye bought the patent in 1858, giving the firm the sole right to manufacture it. The design received a medal for “original application, practical utility and success” at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. Also in 1858, the Tangye firm was commissioned by Brunel’s shipping company to manufacture hydraulic lifting jacks, or rams, to launch the steamship SS Great Eastern. The success of this project brought favourable attention to the firm, and it became involved in other notable projects, including the erection of Cleopatra’s Needle in London in 1878 and work on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland.
The firm underwent several name changes over the years, including James Tangye and Brothers (1857), Tangye Brothers and Price (1859), Tangye Brothers (1860), Tangye Brothers & Holman (1876), Tangye Brothers (by 1878), Tangye Ltd. (1881), and then simply Tangye. Its machinery and equipment were exported worldwide. In 1884, a branch with showrooms, offices, and a warehouse was opened in Melbourne at Cornwall House, Collins Street West. The firm was well known for producing high-quality machinery for agriculture and industry. Even today, new Tangye machinery is available for a subsidiary of Allspeeds. An extensive account of the firm’s history, names, inventions, and further references is available in Grace’s Guide, which also includes references to and diagrams of the Tangye horizontal steam engine.
The horizontal steam engine was made by the well-known engineering firm Tangye, known for its high quality of manufacture. It was an important development in machinery because it helped improve productivity. Engines of this type are still used in some parts of the world today.
This engine is a good example of a late 19th-century steam engine used in industry and agriculture and adapted for many different purposes.
It is also important locally because it was connected to a local cheese making business and part of the thriving western district dairy industry. It may have been one of the Tangyes engines used at the Farnham butter factory or the Warrnambool Butter Factory, which was reported to be one of the most important in the Colony. It is also connected to the Warrnambool Technical School, established in 1968. Steam engine: stationary Tangye Size B, single-cylinder, horizontal Mill type steam engine. It has a 4-inch diameter cylinder with an 8-inch stroke. The body is painted green, and the Pickering governor is red. It was manufactured in Birmingham, England, in accordance with Tangye's Patent 238930, and distributed by Cameron and Sunderland, Melbourne, in the mid-1880s. TANGEYS PATENT BIRMINGHAM B SIZE
238930
CAMERON & SUTHERLAND MELBOURNE
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Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village