Collection: Kelham Island Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Science and Industry Collection

  River Don Engine – This engine was built in 1905 by Davy Bros. of Sheffield to drive Charles Cammell’s armour plate rolling mill at Grimesthorpe Works. It is believed to have been one of four such engines all built for the same purpose. After driving Cammell’s armour plate mill for almost 50 years it was transferred to what was the British Steel Corporation’s River Don Works. Here it continued to drive a heavy plate mill producing such things as Stainless Steel reactor shields and steel plates for the North Sea oil rigs. The engine ceased production in 1978 and it was then transferred to Kelham Island Museum. Technical Data The engine is a single expansion, reversing, 3-cylinder vertical engine, designed to deliver 12,000 i.h.p. using saturated (wet) steam at a pressure of 150lbs. per square inch. This is equivalent to a weight of approximately 10 tons on each piston at the beginning of a stroke. Since the engine is not now being under load conditions, it is able to be operated at a steam pressure of only 10 lbs/sq.ins. The reversing mechanism is a modification of the Joy Valve Gear fitted to many locomotives and is hydraulically operated. This particular mechanism was fitted to allow rapid reversing, an essential attribute in the rolling of heavy plate when any delay means a loss of heat. The Bessemer Converter at Kelham Island Museum is believed to be the only remaining example in England. It was used in Workington by the British Steel Corporation. It ceased production in 1975. This signalled the end of a steelmaking era which began in Sheffield in 1865. It was capable of blowing 30 tons of iron and is a far cry from John Brown’s 4-ton converter of 1860, at that time the largest in the land. The introduction of the first gas engine into Sheffield was sometime prior to 1884. By 1909 the Gas Company’s returns indicated 345 million cubic feet of gas were consumed by gas engines in a year. This would point to about 345 gas engines being in use. The 150 horse power Crossley Gas Engine (type GE130 No. 75590) was supplied to George Clark’s of Penistone Road in Sheffield in 1915. It drove a rod and bar rolling mill and stayed in their ownership until the early 1970s when it was retired and given to Kelham Island Museum. It represents the largest single cylinder engine manufactured by Crossleys and is a rare survivor of its type.

  Subjects

  Science and Industry

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC