Broadcast last night, available on 4OD;

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-britain-worked/4od#3436749 

Entertaining programme about how to be a Dibnah reincarnation. 🙂 🙂

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I completely agree with your last observation! I did think there were one or two (?more) howlers, but the statement that the Newcomen engine was the last working beam engine was a major error. Perhaps it was the effect of the excitement....

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Birmingham Science museum had an excellent working 1779 Newcomen engine.then it was moved to the thinktank 'science museum' and now sits unloved in a corner.

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It focussed significantly on how to make bricks to line the boiler rather than go into great detail on how the Newcomen engine worked and its pros (better than water wheels) and cons (gobbled loads of coal) , which was a shame.

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One can but hope that the Elsecar engine will work again one day!

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Fully agree with all comments, but still enjoyed the programme.

Pity no mention of an original one in Dartmouth, home of Newcomen, which very sureally, is in the tourist information building that incorporates a small Newcomen musuem. Unfortunately its hydraulically powered and you have to ask the young girl behind the counter to start it!! But not a recreation. Still worth seeing it moving.
:thumbup:

It focussed significantly on how to make bricks to line the boiler rather than go into great detail on how the Newcomen engine worked and its pros (better than water wheels) and cons (gobbled loads of coal) , which was a shame.

Be fair, he did mine his own coal for it :lol: :lol: :lol:

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One can but hope that the Elsecar engine will work again one day!

You'll have to ask our Guy to do it for you, now he's an expert. 😉

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What wasn't mentioned was that the whole Newcomen engine, building, shaft and pumps was only built by the Black Country Museum about 30 years ago and the programme was about getting it working again. Why has it all been so neglected as to need rebuilding?
Now that 'Guy' has got it working again will it need rebuilding in another 30 years?

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What wasn't mentioned was that the whole Newcomen engine, building, shaft and pumps was only built by the Black Country Museum about 30 years ago and the programme was about getting it working again. Why has it all been so neglected as to need rebuilding?
Now that 'Guy' has got it working again will it need rebuilding in another 30 years?

I wondered about that too. I also thought that the steam in a Newcomen didn't push the piston up, I thought it was the weight of whatever was attached to the beam did that. But I could well be wrong about that.

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I thought the weight of the pumping rods did pull the piston up and draw steam into the cylinder; but then if they say something different on TV then they must be right! 😉

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Interesting - if the engine is a neglected 'new build' that casts a different light on things. And I too thought that gravity played a key role in the operation of the machine...

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If you look on Wikipedia it does indeed say that the return stroke is done by the weight of the pumping rods.

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Have a look here....

http://www.animatedengines.com/newcomen.html 

The weight of the rod pulls steam into the cylinder (I think wikipedia says this as well)...due to the simple copper boiler, the steam pressure is very low and would not push the piston up very much. The work is done by the pressure created by the vacuum after the cooling spray.

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While it may have been peppered with inaccuracies, its not the X-Factor or Stricty Come Dancing is it ?

I only wish there were more programs like it on TV.

I suspect the inaccuracies you see in programmes like this are down to media company "researchers" just pulling stuff off the internet and passing it on to the scriptwriters without any critical appraisal or expert input. Chris is right though, it's better to have some industrial archaeology on the box even if we do sometimes wince at it....

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The steam enters the cylinder at very low pressure. It is not pulled in by the rods, otherwise how would you start the engine from cold when the rods are outside?

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Therefore would they start the engine with the piston at the top of the cylinder to get the max pull from the vacuum?

Once moving would the weight of the rods assist in pulling in the steam or are they counterbalanced by a balance bob?

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Let's assume the engine is at rest. That means the rods are down the shaft and the piston is at the top of the cylinder. Steam is let into the cylinder below the piston at very low pressure, cold water is then injected into the cylinder and this creates a vacuum pressing the piston down by atmospheric pressure acting on top of the piston. A cock then opens destroying the vacuum, and so the cycle starts again, the rods falling by their own weight.

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We did get asked a few things before and during the filming here at Caphouse, but nothing to do with the working arrangments on Newcomen's - I did a double take myself when steam pressure raising the piston was mentioned.

When they were first scoping the programme and got in contact I did suggest that they take on the the Elsecar engine unfortunately events there weren't moving quick enough for North One's filming schedule. However I can tell you that the same Geoff Wallis (who started off Dorothea Restoration so many years ago) in the programme has been used by Barnsley Council to consult on the Elsecar engine for its planned return to 'working' order - the plan as I understand being to put a new pump rod on instead of the current balance weight frame arrangement and have a hydraulic ram just below ground level in the shaft, this shouldn't be an issue at the indoor end as the piston is connected to a later cast beam by parallel motion.

I was actually down there yesterday taking pictures for a new book we're working on and the security chap from the heritage centre (who'd actually been an NCB apprentice in the workshops there in the 60s) said that the reason the whole thing has seized up was a trial to run the engine on compressed air in the late 50s - the mind boggles how you run an atmospheric engine on positive pressure without recourse to having the piston end of the beam heavier than the outdoor end and all the unplanned forces that would generate on the engine 😢