A short history of the beam engine in America

Abstract

Beam engines introduced America to the steam age and powered the nation’s progress for much of the 19th century, spearheading the navigation of its inland waterways, powering its mills and manufacturing industry, enabling the mining of its deep mineral resources, and supplying its growing cities with water. Development of the beam engine in America lagged that in Britain and Europe but followed a similar evolution until its displacement by other forms of steam engine and by electricity at the end of the 19th century. Development started with the introduction of America’s first beam engine, imported from Britain in 1755, progressed through the rapid growth of American-built engines, and culminated in the mid- to late-19th century in the metropolitan waterworks of the American Midwest and East, in the deep mines of the American West, and in the paddle steamers that first brought America together.

Keywords:

• Steam engines
• engineers
• mining
• paddle steamers
• waterworks
• 19th century America

Acknowledgments

This article has benefited from insightful reviews by Chris Allen and Paul Stephens, and the comments of journal editor Julia Elton, all of which were greatly appreciated.

Notes

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2 L. T. C. Rolt, Thomas Newcomen: The Prehistory of the Steam Engine (Dawlish, UK: David and Charles, 1963), ISBN-10: 0715340794; L. T. C. Rolt and J. S. Allen, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen (Ashbourne, UK: Landmark Publishing, 1997), ISBN-10: 190152244X; John Farey, A Treatise on the Steam Engine: Historical, Practical, Descriptive (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827), 309–405; J. T. Desaguliers, A Course in Experimental Philosophy (London: W. Innys, M. Senex and T. Longman, 1744), 126–211.

3 Ben Marsden, Watt’s Perfect Engine: Steam and the Age of Invention (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), ISBN-10: 0231131720; H. W. Dickinson and R. Jenkins, James Watt and the Steam Engine (London: Encore Editions, 1981), ISBN-10: 0903485923 (reprint of the 1919 memorial volume prepared for the Committee of the Watt Centenary Commemoration in Birmingham); Samuel Smiles Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss: Comprising Also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Steam Engine (London: John Murray, 1865), ISBN-10: 1533349878; Farey, 309–405 (see n. 2).

4 G. J. Drew and J. E. Connell, Cornish Beam Engines in South Australian Mines (Adelaide: Department of Mines and Energy South Australia, Special Publication No. 9, 1993), ISBN-10: 0730823261; D. B. Barton, The Cornish Beam Engine (Truro, UK: D. Bradford Barton Ltd., 2nd Edition, 1966), ISBN-10: 1871060044; W. Pole, A Treatise on the Cornish Pumping Engine; In Two Parts (London: John Weale, 1844), ISBN-10: 0344061922.

5 T. R. Harris, Arthur Woolf: The Cornish Engineer 1766–1837, (Truro: D. Bradford Barton Ltd., 1966), ISBN-10: 0851530508; Rhys Jenkins, ‘A Cornish Engineer: Arthur Woolf, 1766–1837,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society 13 (1932), 55–73; DOI: 10.1179/tns.1932.004; John Farey, A Treatise on the Steam Engine: Historical, Practical, Descriptive (1827), Volume 2 (Newton Abbot, UK: David & Charles, 1971), 43–45. ISBN 0-7153-5004-8.

6 Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., Early Stationary Steam Engines in America: A Study in the Migration of a Technology (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1969), ISBN-10: 0874740940.

7 Ibid., 5–6; Richard P. McCormick ‘The First Steam Engine in America,’ The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 11 (1947), 16–20. DOI: 10.14713/jrul.v11i1.1246; Thomas Coulson, ‘Early Steam Engines in America,’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 243 (March 1947), 219–233. DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(47)90132-4; L. F. Loree ‘The First Steam Engine of America,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society 10 (1929), 15–27, DOI: 10.1179/tns.1929.002; F. R. Hutton, ‘First Stationary Steam Engines in America,’ Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 15 (1894), 982–97; William Nelson, Josiah Hornblower, and the First Steam-Engine in America (Newark, N.J.: Daily Advertiser Printing House, 1883).

8 Nelson, 12 (see n. 7); J. H. Granberry, ‘History of the Schuyler Mine: The First Copper Mine Operated in the United States,’ The Engineering and Mining Journal 82, no. 24 (December 1906), 1117; Abbott M. Collamer, ‘Colonial Copper Mines,’ The William and Mary Quarterly 27 (April 1970), 299. DOI: 10.2307/1918655.

9 Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Jared Eliot dated February 13, 1750 quoted in Jared Sparks, The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Ed., and Many Letters Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published; With Notes and a Life of the Author (Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1838), vol. 6, 107.

10 Nelson, 14 (see n. 7).

11 Ibid., 18.

12 Loree, 21 (see n. 7).

13 Louis C. Hunter, A History of Industrial Power in the United States 1780–1930, Volume 2: Steam Power (Charlottesville, VA: The University Press of Virginia, 1985), 5; Nelson, 21–22 (see n. 7).

14 Loree, 21–22 (see n. 7); New York (NY) Mercury, 22 March 1762, quoted by McCormick, 17 (see n. 7).

15 New-York (NY) Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy, 25 July 1768, quoted by Loree, 22 (see n. 7).

16 Ibid., 22.

17 Bergen County Deeds, G, folios 194, 187; Essex Deeds, D, folio 127, quoted by Nelson, 49–50 (see n. 7).

18 Recollection of John Van Emburgh conveyed to Justice Joseph P. Bradley in 1864, quoted by Nelson, 51 (see n. 7). Van Emburgh, then 100 years old, had worked on the engine in 1792.

19 Correspondence from Rhys Jenkins, Loree, 27 (see n. 7).

20 ‘History of the Steam Engine in America,’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 102 (1876), 255–256; Statement by Justice Joseph P. Bradley in 1889, quoted by Loree, 22 (see n. 7).

21 Granberry, 1116, 1118 (see n. 8); Herbert P. Woodward, Copper Mines and Mining in New Jersey (Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Department of Conservation and Development, 1944), Geological Series, Bulletin 57: 54; I. Finch, Travels in the United States of America and Canada (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1833), 277; North Arlington Public Library, ‘History of North Arlington,’ https://northarlingtonlibrary.org/history.

22 John Paul Murphy, Energy, Mining, and the Commercial Success of the Newcomen ‘Steam’ Engine (Boston, MA: Northeastern University, PhD Thesis, 2012), 229–233, ISBN: 9781267289506; Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., ‘Christopher Colles’s Steam Engine for the New York Water Works, 1775,’ Technology and Culture 10, no. 4 (October 1969), 567–569, DOI: 10.2307/3101577.

23 Thompson Westcott, The Life of John Fitch, the Inventor of the Steamboat (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857), 154, ISBN-10: 0608395447; Gerard T. Koeppel, Water for Gotham: A History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 38.

24 Pennsylvania Evening Post, 21 February 1775, vol. 1, no. 13, p. 51; Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, 16 February 1775, no. 96, p. 3; New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, 11 March 1776, no. 1274, p. 3.

25 Murphy, 231 (see n. 22).

26 Ibid., 243–245; Elizabeth Warren, Discover Hope Village. A National Register Historic District in Scituate, (Providence, RI: Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, 1996), ASIN: B0015M4OPO; James B. Hedges, The Browns of Providence Plantations, Volume 1: Colonial Years (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), ISBN-10: 0674084500.

27 Hunter, 5 (see n. 13); Manasseh Cutler, quoted in Hedges, 278 (see n. 26).

28 Hedges, 270, 313 (see n. 26); National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for ‘Hope Village Historic District,’ (U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1995), 7; Pursell, 9 (see n. 6).

29 Kirkpatrick Sale, The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream (New York: Free Press, 2001), ISBN-10: 0743223217; Hunter, 10, 25 (see n. 13).

30 Harold Evans, Gail Buckland and David Lefer, 2004, They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2004,): 28–41, ISBN-10: 0316013854; H. W. Dickinson, Robert Fulton, Engineer and Artist, His Life and Work (London: John Lane Company, 1913), 217, ISBN-10: 0795017286.

31 Cynthia Owen Philip, Robert Fulton, a Biography (New York: F. Watts, 1985); Alice Crary Sutcliffe, Robert Fulton and the ‘Clermont’: The Authoritative Story of Robert Fulton’s Early Experiments, Persistent Efforts, and Historic Achievements. Containing Many of Fulton’s Hitherto Unpublished Letters, Drawings, and Pictures (New York: The Century Co., 1909); Robert H. Thurston, Robert Fulton: His Life and its Results (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1891), ISBN-10: 079501726X; Cadwallader. D. Colden, The Life of Robert Fulton (New York: Kirk and Mercein, 1817), ISBN-10: 0795017278.

32 Dickinson, 326–327 (see n. 30). Fulton gives the boat’s dimensions as ‘166 feet long, 18 feet wide drawing 2½ feet of water’ in a letter to Boulton and Watt dated 15 September 1810, quoted in Dickinson, 230 (see n. 30).

33 Ibid; 135; Thurston, 115 (see n. 31).

34 Hunter, 24 (see n. 13).

35 Letter from Fulton to Boulton and Watt dated 15 September 1810 quoted in Dickinson, 231 (see n. 30).

36 Dickinson, 326–327 (see n. 30).

37 T. K. Derry and Trevor I. Williams, A Short History of Technology from the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900 (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960), 328–330, ISBN-10 0486274720.

38 Conrad Milster, ‘Giant American ‘Walking’ Beam Engines,’ Marine Propulsion 3, no. 1 (March 1981), 20–25; Bob Whittier, Paddle Wheel Steamers and their Giant Engines (Duxbury, MA: Seamaster, Inc., 1983), ISBN-10: 0911401008.

39 Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens: An American Record (New York: The Century Co., 1928: 185–189, ISBN-10: 0836969944.

40 Andrea Sutcliffe, Steam: The Untold Story of America’s First Great Invention (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), ISBN-10: 1403968993; James Thomas Flexner, Steamboats Come True: American Inventors in Action, 2nd edition (New York: Fordham University Press, 1992), ISBN-10: 0823213765; Westcott (see n. 23).

41 Roscoe Conkling Fitch, John Fitch: A Reprint from the History of the Fitch Family (Haverhill, MA: Record Publishing Company, 1930); Navy League of the United States, Admiral Bunce Section, n. 42, John Fitch: the first in the world’s history to invent and apply steam propulsion of vessels through water (Hartford CT: Press of R. S. Peck & Co., 1912); Westcott, 178, 194, 249, 401 (see n. 23); Columbian Magazine, 1 December 1786, vol. 1, no. 4, p. 174.

42 Coulson, 226 (see n. 7); Nelson, 49–52 (see n. 7).

43 Purcell, 30 (see n. 6); Hunter, 51 (see n. 13); Jennifer Tann and M. J. Breckin, ‘The International Diffusion of the Watt Engine, 1775–1825,’ The Economic History Review 31 (November 1978), 559.

44 Hunter, 48–60 (see n. 13); Pursell, 31–32 (see n. 6); Gerald E. Arnold, ‘History of Steam-Operated Pumps at Philadelphia,’ American Water Works Association 47 (January 1955), 49–59; Frederick Graff, ‘Notes of Steam-Engines in the United States About the Year 1801, and a Description of Those in Use at the Water-Works of the City of Philadelphia,’ Scientific American Supplement 45 (November 1876), 706–708; ‘History of the Steam Engine in America,’ 258–268 (see n. 20).

45 Morris A. Pierce, Documentary History of American Water-works (http://www.waterworkshistory.us, 2020); ‘History of the Steam Engine in America,’ 257 (see n. 20); J. James Croes, ‘The History and Statistics of American Water-Works,’ Engineering News 8 (March 1881), 91; Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ‘First Report of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, to the American Philosophical Society, Held at Philadelphia; In Answer to the Enquiry of the Society of Rotterdam, “Whether Any, and What Improvements Have Been Made in the Construction of Steam-Engines in America?”’ Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 6 (1809), 92. DOI: 10.2307/1004775; Morning Chronicle (London), 5 March 1803, p. 3.

46 Latrobe, 91–92 (see n. 45).

47 Pursell, 42 (see n. 6).

48 Ibid, 33 and 42; Hunter, 54 (see note 13).

49 Levi Woodbury Report to the United States Department of the Treasury, Steam-engines: Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, Transmitting, in Obedience to a Resolution of the House of the 29th of June Last, Information in Relation to Steam-engines, &c, Document No. 21 (Washington: Thomas Allen, printer, 1839), 355–356.

50 Pursell, 43 (see n. 6).

51 Pierce (see n. 45); Hunter, 180 (see n. 13); Pursell, 35–36 (see n. 6); Louisiana State Gazette, 22 May 1811, p. 2.

52 Jane Mork Gibson and Robert Wolterstorff, ‘The Fairmount Water Works,’ Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 84 (1988), 4–46; Hunter 54–57 (see n. 13); Gerald E. Arnold, ‘History of Steam-operated Pumps at Philadelphia,’ Journal of the American Water Works Association 47 (January 1955), 49–59; Walter A. Graf, Water Works of the City of Philadelphia: The Story of their Development and Engineering Specifications (Philadelphia, PA: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Catalogue No. WZ 23591, 1931), 23. (https://classic.waterhistoryphl.org/backpages/GrafHistory_HSP.htm).

53 Hunter, Table 3, 56 (see n. 13).

54 Oliver Evans, The Abortion of a Young Engineer (Philadelphia, PA: Fry and Kammerer, 1805), 122; Latrobe, 92 (see n. 45).

55 Hunter, 45–46 (see n. 13); Niles’ Weekly Register (Baltimore), 30 August 1817, p. 5.

56 Charles W. Dahlinger, ‘The New Orleans, Being a Critical Account of the Beginning of Steamboat Navigation on the Western Rivers of the United States,’ Pittsburgh Legal Journal, 59 (1911), 579–591; John H. Morrison, History of American Steam Navigation (New York: W. F. Sametz & Co., 1903), 190–202.

57 Pursell, 62–65 (see n. 6).

58 Ibid., 66–68.

59 Jeremy Atack, Fred Bateman and Thomas Weiss, ‘The Regional Diffusion and Adoption of the Steam Engine in American Manufacturing,’ The Journal of Economic History (1980) 40, no. 2, p. 281–282.

60 Ibid., Table 1; Pursell, 72–93 (see n. 6); Woodbury Report (see. n. 49); McLane Report to United States Congress, Documents Relative to the Manufactures in the United States Collected and Transmitted to the House of Representatives by the Secretary of the Treasury (Washington: Duff Green, 1833), Document No. 308.

61 Hunter, 156 (see n. 13); Woodbury Report, Table H7, 159–167 (see. n. 49).

62 Damian Nance, ‘Chesapeake and Delaware Canal engines,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 16, no. 2 (1994), 9–13; ‘Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, Pump House,’ HAER No. MD-39 (Washington, DC: Historic American Engineering Record, 1984), 2–4; National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, C & D Pumping Machinery, Scoop Wheel and Engines (Chesapeake City, MD: U.S Army Corp of Engineers and American Society of Mechanical Engineers, October 1975); Greville Bathe, An Engineer’s Miscellany (Philadelphia, PA: Patterson & White Company, 1938), 101–11.

63 Patrick M. Malone, ‘Steam Mills in a Seaport: Power for the New Bedford Textile Industry,’ The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archaeology 40, nos. 1 and 2 (2014), 108–136; Hunter, 156–157 (see n. 13).

64 Ibid., 11, 30, 73–74; Pursell, 73 (see n. 6).

65 Whittier, 8 (see n. 38).

66 Milster 20–25 (see n. 38); Whittier, 11–17 (see n. 38).

67 Ibid., 13.

68 Peter Temin, ‘Steam and Waterpower in the Early Nineteenth Century,’ The Journal of Economic History (June 1966), 26, Table 1, 191; Jennifer Tann, ‘Steam and Sugar: The Diffusion of the Stationary Steam Engine to the Caribbean Sugar Industry 1770–1840,’ History of Technology 19 (1997), 70–74.

69 Temin, 190 (see n. 68); Hunter, 230–231 (see n. 13); Woodbury (see n. 49).

70 Pursell, 75 (see n. 6); F. R. Hutton, ‘First Stationary Steam Engines in America,’ Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 15 (1894), 982–97; ‘The Oldest Steam Engine in the United States,’ Engineering News 30 (9 November 1893), 370.

71 Hunter, 628–629 (see n. 13).

72 William D. Sawyer, ‘Corliss: Man and Engine, Volume 1, The Life and Work of George H. Corliss,’ Journal of the International Stationary Steam Engine Society 10 (1994), 1–123; Hunter, 251–300 (see n. 13).

73 Tann and Brekin, 559 (see n. 43).

74 Jennifer Tann, ‘Marketing Methods in the International Steam Engine Market: The Case of Boulton and Watt,’ The Journal of Economic History 38 (June 1978), Table 1, 365; Tann and Breckin, Table 3, 545 and Appendix, 561–564 (see n. 43).

75 Tann, 70–74 (see n. 68).

76 R. Damian Nance, ‘Cornish Mining Technology in Eastern Pennsylvania: The Perkiomen and Wheatley Mines.’ The Mining History Journal, 26 (2019), 1–20; Barton, 259 (see n. 4); Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) 10 July 1851, p. 2; ‘Cornish Engines,’ Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, 21 (May 1851), 353–354.

77 Ronald A. Sloto, The Mines and Mineral of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Middletown, DE: Ronald A. Sloto, 2009), 169–170; ‘Cornish Engines’ (see n. 76).

78 Professor R. H. Thurston, ‘The Growth of the Steam-Engine,’ Popular Science Monthly, 12 (December 1877), 143–144.

79 New York Herald, 25 July 1855, p. 7.

80 L. Michael Kaas, ‘The History of Zinc Mining in Friedensville, Pennsylvania,’ The Mining History Journal 23 (2016), 17–42; Damian Nance, ‘“The President”: North America’s Largest Beam Engine,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 34, no. 4 (2013), 46–55; H. S. Drinker, ‘Abstract of a Paper on the Mines and Works of the Lehigh Zinc Company,’ Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 1 (1871), 67–75.

81 Sloto, 137 (see n. 77).

82 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA), 23 August 1919, p. 10; Franklin Ellis and Samuel Evans, ‘The History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,’ (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1883), 664–666; Persifor Frazer, Jr., ‘The Geology of Lancaster County,’ (Harrisburg, PA: Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, 1880), 163–176; Lewisburg Chronicle, 25 May 1855, p. 1.

83 Jeffrey M. O'Dell, Chesterfield County: Early Architecture and Historic Sites (Chesterfield, VA: Chesterfield County Planning Dept., 1983), 83–88. ISBN-10: 0961077409; Oswald J. Heinrich, ‘The Midlothian, Virginia, Colliery in 1876,’ Transactions, American Institute of Mining Engineers 4 (1876), 308–316; Richmond Whig and Advertiser (Richmond, VA), 7 August 1868, p. 3; Joseph Buzzo, ‘Mid-Lothian Coal Mines, Virginia – Cornish Pumping Engine,’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 67 (January 1859), 26–30; The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, VA), 2 May 1857, p. 1.

84 Hunter, Table 57, 525–526 (see n. 13); Graf, 38 (see n. 52); Baker, N. M., ed., The Manual of American Water Works 1888 (New York: Engineering News, 1889), 206.

85 Pierce (see n. 45); Walter G. Elliot, ‘Report on the Water-Supply of Certain Cities of the United States,’ in: Prof. W. P. Throwbridge, Statistics of Power and Machinery Employed in Manufactures, Reports on the Water-power of the United States, Part 2 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1887), 153; New Orleans Weekly Delta, 21 December 1846, p. 2.

86 Graf, 57; (see n. 52); Elliot, 135–136 (see n. 85).

87 Jean Howson, Cultural Resources Survey of the Jersey City Water Works Pipeline, 1851–1873 (Parsippany, NJ: The RBA Group, May 2001), 14; Manual of American Water Works, 154 (see n. 84); Engineering News (New York), 4 June 1881, p. 226; Newark (NJ) Daily Advertiser, 1 June 1853, p. 2.

88 Graf, 38 (see n. 52); Manual of American Water Works, 206 (see n. 84); Elliot, 131–132 (see n. 85).

89 Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 7 March 1856, p. 1; Charleston (SC) Courier, 23 July 1856, p. 2.

90 Manual of American Water Works, 308 (see n. 84); Elliot, 112–113 (see n. 85); Engineering News (New York), 23 April 1881, p. 163; Cleveland (OH) Daily Herald, 18 September 1856, p. 3.

91 Baker, N. M., ed., The Manual of American Water Works 1897 (New York: Engineering News Publishing Co., 1897), 91; George B. Brainard, The Water Works of Brooklyn: A Historical and Descriptive Account of the Construction of the Works, and the Quantity, Quality and Cost of the Supply (Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn, 1873), 23–25; Zerah Colburn and William H. Maw, The Waterworks of London (Philadelphia, PA: Henry Carey Braid, 1868), 105–113; The New York (NY) Times, 1 February 1860, p. 2.

92 Elliot, 80 (see n. 85); Engineering News (New York), 7 May 1881, p. 183–184; Fourth Annual Report of the Louisville Water Company (Louisville: John P. Morton & Co., 1862), 17–18.

93 Manual of American Water Works, 102–103, 106 (see n. 84); Elliot, 304 (see n. 85); Engineering News (New York), 16 April 1881, p.153: Colburn and Maw, 147–148 (see n. 91).

94 Graf, 67 (see n. 52); Manual of American Water Works, 208 (see n. 84); Elliot, 139 (see n. 85); Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Water Department of the City of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, E. C. Markley & Sons, 1870), 10; Ibid., (Philadelphia: William F. Geddes, 1866), 65; H. P. M. Birkinbine, Pumping Engines for the Water Supply of Cities and Towns (Philadelphia, Office of the Birkinbine Fire Protection, 1877), 4.

95 Graf, 43 (see n. 52); Manual of American Water Works, 206 (see n. 84); Elliot, 132 (see n. 85); The Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer 19 August 1869, p. 4.

96 Manual of American Water Works, 472 (see n. 84); Elliot, 146–151 (see n. 85); Engineering News (New York), 9 April 1881, p.143; J. A. Dacus and James W. Buel, A Tour of Saint Louis (St. Louis: Western Publishing Company, 1878), 31–33; St Louis Globe Democrat 17 February 1868, p. 4; Daily Missouri Democrat, 11 November 1867, p. 4.

97 Morning Oregonian (Portland, OR), 17 September 1872, p. 4.

98 Elliot, 71–72 (see n. 85); Engineering News (New York), 14 May 1881, p.195.

99 Kaas (see n. 80); Nance (see n. 80); Nadine Miller Peterson and Dan Zagorski, ‘Zinc Mining in the Saucon Valley Region of Pennsylvania 1846–1986,’ Canal History and Technology Proceedings 20 (2001), 139–162; Mark W. Connar, ‘The Ueberroth Zinc Mine – Friedensville, Pa: The President Pumping Engine and its Cornish Engine House,’ unpublished report, 2020.

100 Eightieth Annual Report of the City Auditor Showing the Appropriations, Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Providence, for the Year Ending September 30, 1926, with a Schedule of the City Property (Providence, RI: The Oxford Press, 1926), 124.

101 T.E. Crowley: The Beam Engine – A Massive Chapter in the History of Steam (Oxford, UK: Senecio Publishing Company Ltd, 1982), 31–32.

102 A 42-inch/84-inch (6-foot strokes) McNaught compound engine built by the Detroit Locomotive Works in 1876 was installed at the Detroit Waterworks (Elliot, 66, see n. 85; Engineering News [New York], 14 May 1881, p. 195).

103 A V-configuration 18-inch/38-inch (8-foot strokes) double compound engine designed by E. D. Leavitt Jr., and built at the Port Richmond (Philadelphia) Iron Works of I. P. Morris and Co. was installed at the Lawrence (MA) waterworks in 1875 (Sawyer, 99, see n. 72; Hunter, Fig. 134, 564, see n. 13; Elliot, 249, see n. 85; Engineering News [New York], 5 September 1878, p. 284; W. E. Worthen, J. C. Hoadley and Jos. P. Davis, ‘Trial of the Pumping Engines for the Water Works at Lawrence, Mass.,’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 102 [November 1876]: 312–328). A similar Leavitt-designed single compound engine (17½-inch/36-inch cylinders, 7-foot strokes), also built by I. P. Morris, was installed at the Lynn Waterworks in 1873 (Elliot, 200, see n. 85; Salem Observer, 13 January 1873, p. 2.).

104 A 36-inch (5-feet 1⅝-inch stroke)/57-inch (8-foot stroke) Woolf compound engine built by the Southwark Foundry of H. G. Morris was installed at the Lowell (MA) Waterworks the same year (1872) (Elliot, 115–116, see n. 85); Engineering News [New York], 11 June 1881, p. 234; J. P. Lewis and Robert Briggs, ‘The Engine for the Lowell Water Works, Constructed for the City of Lowell, Mass., 1871–1872,’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 101 [May 1876]: 329–335).

105 R. Damian Nance, ‘Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station 1859–1910.’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 21, no. 1 (1999), 9–17.

106 Report of Special Committee on Water-Works (St. Louis: Democrat Book and Job Office, 1861), 11–13.

107 Providence Evening Press, 1 October, 1875, p. 2; Ibid., 22 September 1875, p. 2; Ibid., 30 April 1875, p. 2; Ibid., 15 December 1873, p. 2.

108 Howson, 41 (see n. 87); Engineering News (New York), 4 June 1881, p. 226.

109 Hunter, Table 57, 526–527 (see n. 13); Graf, (see n. 52); Manual of American Water Works, 201–216 (see n. 84).

110 Ibid., Tables 16A-S, xv–xxxvi.

111 Damian Nance, ‘Michigan’s Chapin Mine and its Monumental Pumping Engine.’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 39, no. 4 (2020), 49–60. Chapin Mine Pumping Engine: National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark (Iron Mountain, MI: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, July 1987). https://www.asme.org/wwwasmeorg/media/resourcefiles/aboutasme/who%20we%20are/engineering%20history/landmarks/124-chapin-mine-pumping-engine.pdf.

112 In their report on pumping and hoisting machinery for gold and silver mines published by the Risdon Iron Works in San Francisco in 1877, Joseph Moore and George W. Dickie, Pumping and Hoisting Works for Gold and Silver Mines (San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1877) state ‘there is not a single example of the [true] Cornish engine among all the pumping machinery at work on our mines.’

113 Moore and Dickie, 12 (see n. 111); Daily News (Gold Hill, NV), 3 February 1877, p. 3.

114 Carl George and P. de Laval, ‘Pumping on the Comstock’. The Engineering and Mining Journal (March 1905), 518; Daily News (Gold Hill, NV), 2 October 1876, p. 3; Pioche (NV) Daily Record 27 February 1876, p. 2.

115 Jimmie Schneider, Quicksilver: The Complete Account of Santa Clara County’s New Almaden Mine (San Jose, CA: Zella Schneider, 1992), 90–91; Hans C. Behr, ‘Mine Drainage, Pumps, Etc.’ California State Mining Bureau Bulletin 9 (1896), 88.

116 Grant H. Smith, History of the Comstock Lode 1850–1920 (Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1998), 278–281; George and de Laval, 518 (see n. 113); Mining and Scientific Press (San Francisco, CA), 13 December 1879, p. 377.

117 Hal Compton and David Hampshire, ‘Park City,’ Chapter 13 in Colleen Whitley (ed.), From the Ground Up: A History of Mining in Utah (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2006), 318–341. ISBN-10: 0874216397; George A. Thompson and Fraser Buck, Treasure Mountain Home: Park City Revisited (Salt Lake City, UT: Dream Garden Press, 1993), 18–20 and 88; Behr, 87 and 92 (see n. 114).

118 Daily News (Gold Hill, NV), 26 February 1864, p. 2.

119 Robert E. Kendall, ‘Deep Enough: Pitfalls and Perils of Deep Mining on the Comstock,’ Nevada Historical Society Quarterly (Fall 1996), 216–218; Daily News (Gold Hill, NV), 7 July 1865, p. 3.

120 Michael H. Piatt, ‘The Problem of Water Mine Drainage at Bodie’ (Bodie, California: History and Research website, August 2006), http://www.bodiehistory.com/drainage.htm.

121 Wm. B. Shillingberg, Tombstone, A.T. A History of Early Mining, Milling and Mayhem (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), ISBN 10: 0806154098; Daily Alta 19 November 1885, p. 8; The Tombstone 20 July 1885, p. 3.

122 Daily News (Gold Hill, NV), 13 January 1865, p. 3.

123 Damian Nance, ‘Beam Engines of the Henry Ford Collection,’ Stationary Steam, The Journal of the International Stationary Steam Engine Society, 4, (1996), 3–17.

124 Damian Nance, ‘Former and Stored Beam Engines of the Henry Ford Collection,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 41, no. 4 (2023), 33–44.

125 Damian Nance, Randolf Grymes, Jr. and Terry Girouard, ‘Beam Engines in North America IX: The Vaucluse Engine, Colorado Springs,’ Trevithick Society Newsletter 127 (2005), 4–8; Plan and Description of the Vaucluse Mine, Orange, County, Virginia (Philadelphia: John H. Schwacke, 1847).

126 R. Damian Nance, ‘Leighton Wilkie and the DoAll Company’s Watt Engine,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 25, no. 3 (2004), 32–44.

127 Damian Nance, ‘Beam Engines in North America: the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Engines,’ Trevithick Society Newsletter 89 (1995), 13–15; https://www.explorelouisiana.com/articles/history-comes-alive-lsu-rural-life-museum.

128 Damian Nance, ‘The Harlan and Hollingsworth and Other Engines of the National Museum of American History,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 41, no. 2 (2022), 17–23.

129 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYc_MpwSVFI.

130 https://museum.nps.gov/ParkObjdet.aspx?rID=SAFR%20%20%2015305&db=objects&dir=CR%20AAWEB&osearch=beam%20engine&page=1.

131 Steve Muller, ‘Steam-Powered Sugar Cane Machinery Operating Again in Puerto Rico,’ Society for Industrial Archaeology Newsletter 45, no. 1, (2016), 10–11; https://jaimemontilla.com/la-igualdad.

132 R. Damian Nance, ‘Stationary Steam Engines in the U S Virgin Islands: Part 1 – St Thomas and St John,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 42, no. 1 (2023), 22–31; R. Damian Nance, ‘Stationary Steam Engines in the U S Virgin Islands: Part 2 – St Croix,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 42, no. 2 (2023), 49–59.

133 R. Damian Nance, ‘The Harvey Engines of the Mina Proaño, Fresnillo, Mexico,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 26, no. 4 (2005), 32–44.

134 R. Damian Nance, ‘The Paddle Steamer Eureka and its Walking Beam Engine,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 38, no. 2 (2018), 49–60; Damian Nance, ‘The Steamboat Ticonderoga and her Walking Beam Engine,’ International Stationary Steam Engine Society Bulletin 38, no. 4 (2019), 25–39.

135 Joshua Rose, Modern Steam Engines (Philadelphia, PA: Henry Carey Braid & Co., 1887), 290–292.

136 Mining and Scientific Press (San Francisco, CA), 21 August 1880, p. 114.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

R. Damian Nance

R. Damian Nance is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences at Ohio University and has written extensively on beam engines in America and the buildings that once housed them. He is senior author of A Complete Guide to the Engine Houses of West Cornwall (Lindley, UK: Lightmoor Press, 2014), A Complete Guide to the Engine Houses of Mid-Cornwall (Lindley, UK: Lightmoor Press, 2019), and A Complete Guide to the Engine Houses of East Cornwall and Devon (Lindley, UK: Lightmoor Press, 2023). He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Yale University and lives in Stratford, Connecticut.