Dear Peter & List
I have seen a number of the tenders advertised in the S.A, papers over the
years, but did not bother to record them as they were not on my list of
things to do, also let us not forget the great trade of the second-hand
Cornish Engines
around the world, so in some cases it is possible a engine-erected/builder
came on the boat with the engine!!!!
Take Care
Roger B Bradford
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Bell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: Engine Houses
>I looked up Greg Drew and Jack Connell's book Cornish Beam Engines in
>South Australian Mines (Department of Mines & Energy, Adelaide, 1993)
>Thirty-three Cornish engine houses were built here between 1848 and 1888,
>of which eight are still standing.
>
> The names of builders are not recorded consistently, but there is more
> about the engineers who installed the engines (Jack Connell was an
> engineer). They single out two engineers, John Congdon and Frederick
> May, both Cornish-born, as having installed nearly half the engines in
> South Australia (p. 62). John Tippett and Richard Watters seem to have
> installed several more.
>
> Elsewhere, Jack commented that "The Cornish beam engine differed from
> most other major precision machinery in that the masonry of the building
> was as much a part of the structure of the engine as was the ironwork",
> and described the engine house as "virtually the main frame of the
> engine" (p. 60). This implies that the installing engineers would have
> been responsible for the detailed design of the house, but tells us
> nothing about who the contractors were in each case.
>
> Incidental information in the book names only about six of the engine-
> house builders. The practice seems to have been to call tenders locally.
> There seems to be little pattern or consistency in the preferred choice
> of builder, except for James Cornelius, who erected three engine-houses
> in quick succession in the vicinity of Wallaroo Mines in the early 1860s.
>
> Peter Bell
>
> On 12/03/2010, at 7:12 PM, Robert Waterhouse wrote:
>
>> Dear List,
>>
>> Given their specialist architecture/need to fit machinery of a
>> specialised nature, is there any evidence for beam engine houses and
>> their chimneys in Devon & Cornwall (and elsewhere) being built by
>> specialist builders? If so, has anyone got any references?
>>
>> Robert Waterhouse
>
> _________________
> Dr Peter Bell
> PO Box 574, Goodwood SA 5034
> Phone (08) 8373 1900
> Mobile 0407 793 652
> email <[log in to unmask]>
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