This machine started from engineers who provided a mathmatical design converted to paper by draughtsmen , then converted to wood by patternmakers then the patterns used by a foundry to cast the components on to a machine shop who precision machined the castings , assembled in a workshop and then ....a working machine .....simple ha ha
Closest thing to them around, but still significantly smaller. Titanic's HP cylinder was the same size as this engine's IP cylinder, and the Titanic engines had 4 cylinders each rsther than 3, as the LP cylinders were split into 2.
The engine is impressive in itself but I was looking at the structure of the beast and it looks it it was all casting made. Yes, and all the rails, the plaque's have stand offs as well as the gauges and much more I couldn't see, The pour set up for something like this and blue printing involved,,, it's a treasure.
Its well worth a visit to see this in South West London. 👍 It would have been nice to see a few seconds of film of its sister engine across the hall. Thanks for filming 👍
@@cbennett1 We don't have trip dates yet but will likely be in London for 2 weeks. We'll check the museum for dates to see if we can make them coincide with our trip dates. We made it to Crossness last year and that was a thrill.
That’s the inching drive - it stops the main crank shaft bending under its own weight and in this case verifies that it isn’t too bent to safely start while moving the engine to start position and clearing residual water from the cylinders during preheating.
Very quiet. Wonder if a Solar Thermal system could make enough heat to run a modern one of these. Could make for some interesting steam powered cargo ships.
@@PiDsPagePrototypes Well, for electricity generation, steam turbines are now the way to go. More efficient in many aspects and easier to get from a supplier today than steam piston engines. Small steam turbines even operate in modern gas turbine powerplants to recover more energy from the exhaust gases.
The guy at the little barring machine, did anybody else get a little nervous watching him operating it with that long piece of rag dangling around those gears or is that just me? I'll admit I got a little fixated on that... ;)
As far as I can find, the USS Texas engines were built by Newport News Shipbuilding. They were 4 cylinder triple expansion engines (LP cylinder split into 2 cylinders)
Steam power was engineered to perfection, that is, until something better, cheaper and simpler came along. That principle applies to all types of technologies.
