All About Engines

The Pioneers before Wætt 33 strokes a minute. The boy could not time the opera- tion half so well as the engine could. At a later date the cords used by Potter were replaced by rods bv enry Beighton, of Newcastle, an arrangement which was more durable and certain in its action Newcomen’s engine arrived at a fortunate time for the mining industry. Coal had not been much used as a fuel, and had been obtained mostly from near the surface. But when the miner sought it at greater depths, water disputed with him for its pos- session. He raised it in buckets by a winch, or pumped it up by the aid of horses or by hand labour, and still it gained on him. So when the engine erected near Wolverhampton proved a success, it was soon followed by a second and third at pits near Newcastle. The fourth engine was put up at Aus thorpe, near Leeds, in 1714. It had a cylinder about 2 feet m diameter and there were two pumps each 9 inches m diameter ; while the water is said to häve been raised through a height of nearly too eet. The inventors—for Newcomen had a partner named Galley, of whom little is known but his Mine—received £250 a year for working it and keep- ing it in order. And the task was worth it. Great difficulty was experienced with the boiler, which in the early years had to be renewed annually. When the fame of Newcomen’s engine became noised abroad, a demand for his assistance came rom the tin and copper mines of Cornwall and the lead mines of Cumberland. The first Cornish engine was set up at the Wheal Fortune mine in 1720. It