Textile Mill Engines
| Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:43 Chris Allen |
Direct drive was eventually replaced by electric drive to the machinery and electricity could either be made on site or imported from the public utilities. For generation on site, slow speed and high speed steam reciprocating engines or steam turbines could be used. I have photographs of examples of all three methods and these are set out below. Another way that electricity was used was for lighting of mills and the large mill engine could also drive a generator for lighting. However, when the main engine was stopped a pilot lighting set was required and a beautiful example is preserved at the Ellenroad Engine House  .To return to the theme of engines for electric driving, an interesting early example of 1914 was to be found at the British Leyland works in Chorley. This had been built as a weaving shed with a Clayton, Goodfellow horizontal cross compound engine  rope driving a Lancashire Dynamo and Crypto dynamo (DC)  . This then powered electric motors running the lineshafts to power the looms. Unfortunately the First World war intervened and the works was taken over by Leyland Motors Ltd who used the engine until about 1938. It was removed in 1985 and is now in private hands in Derbyshire.In later years, it was more usual to direct couple dynamos or alternators to a high speed engine (typically 350-600 rpm) with an enclosed crankcase and forced lubrication. A few works in the textile trades made use of one or more such machines and some are illustrated below. George Street Mills, Milnsbridge, operated by James Shires  was a good example of the later use of steam power. In the 1980s two secondhand Belliss and Morcom engines driving alternators were installed in an old engine house  . This was an example of combined heat and power where a works requiring a considerable quantity of low pressure process steam can generate electricity highly efficiently by using engines as power producing reducing valves (much of the fuel used in a steam plant just goes in the latent heat of vaporisation and relatively little extra energy is needed to produce pressure - a little simplistic). In 1988 a third engine was added  but this was less efficient and the whole plant didn't last too much longer.Dyeworks and finishing plants were ideal for non-condensing engines as part of a combined heat and power system and examples included Belmont Dyeing and Bleach Works   with a pair of Belliss & Morcom engines  and Wildspur Mills, New Mill  with a W H Allen engine.A most impressive power house with four Belliss & Morcom engines was at Carpets of Worth, Stourport   . Condensing high speed engines were quite unusual in my experience of the textile trades and one such was to be found at the Upper Mills of Elon Crowther at Slaithwaite  and was a Belliss & Morcom with a surface condenser and steam jet air extractor  . There were a few mills using steam turbines to drive alternators and an excellent example was at Manningham Mills, Bradford   . In the 1930s this mill had a major rationalisation of its power supply and several reciprocating engines of varying age and efficiency were replaced by electric motors powered from the mills' own power station. This contained two Fraser and Chalmers non-condensing turbines direct coupled to alternators  . Believed to have been scrapped.Another mill with a steam turbine plant was the Brintons carpet factory in Kidderminster   with a W H Allen turbine from the 1950s  . This works has been very largely flattened  .Astley Bridge Mill, Bolton  was built for Sir John Holden in 1925-6 and was all electric with imported electricity - the end of one era and the beginning of another. |
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| Fri, 9 Oct 2009 00:10 Chris Allen |
The finishing trades (dyeing and printing for example) made use of small engines to drive individual machines. This was economical as the exhaust steam was used in process, for example in drying cylinders. A very popular type of engine was the twin cylinder diagonal (or inverted vee) and these were made in sizes from about 3' tall to 6' or so. The last in situ working example  drove a calender at the Barracks Fabrics Finishing Co in Macclesfield. It was then removed to the Dingles Steam Village in Devon but has very recently (Nov 09) been acquired by the Robey Trust for display at their museum in Tavistock  .An example was later found in Crayford and is now at Crossness Pumping Station. Anybody can see the open air example at Burrs Country Park, Bury   .Examples can also be seen at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester and the Bolton Steam Museum. Mather & Platt made a 3 cylinder engine to drive a machine known as a stenter and the late Fred Dibnah acquired one that is now on display at the Bolton Steam Musem. |
| Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:22 Chris Allen |
Textile Mills were always at risk from fire, despite the later "fireproof" construction and insurance companies were very keen that appropriate firefighting equipment be provided, usually in the form of sprinklers. Mill towers would house water tanks and the flat roofs around Oldham were used as storage ponds. The mills would have a steam firepump, often self-starting in the case of loss of sprinkler pressure. Several horizontal duplex rotative pumps survive, including the following: -  this example was at Royd Mill Hollinwood  ]  and is now preserved at Astley Green Colliery, Tyldesley.This similar example  is at the preserved Masson Mills, Matlock Bath in Derbyshire   .A larger example  built c1910 by George Mills of radcliffe is believed to be in situ (2009) at tonedale mills near Wellington  .In the last few years it has been discovered that there is one still in at Mutual Mills No. 1 Mill, Heywood  but I have yet to see that and nobody else has posted it.A large horizontal single cylinder rotative fire pump from Fern Mill, Shaw is on display in the Bolton Steam Museum (photo to follow). Springfield Mill, Sandiacre  had a Merryweather inverted vertical single cylinder firepump (being made by Merryweather, the fire engine people), there was no doubt as to its purpose and it still had hoses attached  . This is now preserved at Papplewick Pumping Station  .Inverted vertical duplex rotative firepumps were to be found at Bliss Tweed Mill, Chipping Norton  and Fox Brothers, Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme  (photo to follow). The original engine at Coldharbour mill was frost damaged and replaced for display by the Bliss Tweed Mill example.Another popular design was the horizontal duplex non-rotative pump. Mather & Platt of Manchester built many of these. This design was approved by insurance companies and was sometimes marketed as the "underwriter" pump. An example is in situ at Ellenroad Engine House  . |
| Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:04 Chris Allen |
All these steam engines required a supply of steam and this came from the boilerhouse that practically always adjoined the engine house. To be continued. |
