Description

The engine is rated at one-hundred horsepower and drives two pumps, of the plunger type. Each pump was capable of moving two million gallons-per-day, when the engine was running at sixteen revolutions per minute. The pumps are each twenty-six inches diameter and fifty-one inch stroke.
This remarkable engine was built by Wood Brothers, of Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, between 1886 and 1888. It was commissioned on the 12th July 1888. It saw continuous duty from that time to around 1905, when it was relegated to standby duty for storm water pumping.
The engine is a rotary beam engine believed to be the last engine produced by Wood Bros., and the only surviving eight column engine in situ. The twin cylinders are capable of being harnessed in serial or compound modes and have an advanced ‘cut-off’ valve gear.