1 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,160 STEAM HISSES 2 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,520 This is my back garden. 3 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,920 Everything's driven by steam. I don't need electricity. 4 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:41,040 The boiler produces the steam to drive three steam engines that work all of my workshop. 5 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:46,200 But the drawback, as against an electric motor, is the fact 6 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:50,640 that you can't just press a button and start it off. 7 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:55,040 It takes me roughly a day to get the whole place going. 8 00:00:55,040 --> 00:01:01,120 With belt-driven machinery, just at the crucial moment, the belt breaks 9 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,560 and the job's stopped - but it's very cheap. 10 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:14,000 At one time it was all steam engines round here, driving cotton mills, engineering works and the likes. 11 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,000 Now this must be the only steam-powered works in all of Bolton. 12 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:25,280 For nearly 200 years, steam drove the wheels of industry, making Britain 13 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,720 the greatest industrial nation in the world. 14 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,400 But it hadn't always been the case. 15 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:36,280 Steam power didn't really cause the Industrial Revolution, 16 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:39,800 but it played a very important part in it. 17 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:44,240 The factory system developed from the textile industry 18 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:48,840 a long time before the steam engine became fully developed. 19 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:54,520 Quarry Bank Mill at Styal is hidden away behind Manchester Airport. 20 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:59,320 When the mill was first built, in the latter half of the 18th century, 21 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:04,080 they used water power to drive the revolutionary spinning machinery. 22 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:07,560 It is, without a doubt, one of the best places 23 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:12,000 where you can see steam and water power working together. 24 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,400 The original water wheel was designed and built 25 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,840 by Sir William Fairbairn of Manchester, 26 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,600 who was very famous for his what they call "suspension" water wheels. 27 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:29,480 They put the first segment in the bottom of the water wheel pit 28 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,760 and anchor it to the spokes so it's suspended, 29 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:37,800 move it round one and put another in, move it round one and put another in. 30 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,120 Eventually, it would end up round. 31 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:45,840 When this water wheel was installed, steam engines were well developed. 32 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,400 But they were a bit unreliable. 33 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:53,240 This thing runs for nothing, with no breakdowns, coal and all that. 34 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:56,680 It still was a formidable source of power. 35 00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:03,000 You can see, with the size of it, working through these reduction gears, 36 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,440 it could drive all the machinery in the mill. 37 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:11,760 WATER TRICKLES 38 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:17,000 Even today, the weaving shed takes its power from the water wheel. 39 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,680 This is part of the transmission. 40 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:26,600 A great, vertical shaft comes up through three floors to this level, where the weaving shed is. 41 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:32,080 The bevel gears, the horizontal shaft, then the counter-shafts, and then the looms proper. 42 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,880 These things always caused trouble. 43 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,600 The great weight of a vertical shaft, 44 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:43,960 especially in spinning mills, which were four and five storeys high... the problem was 45 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:49,920 getting the weight of each length of the shaft equalised on thrust bearings. 46 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:56,520 They could never quite get it right and it always got hot at the bottom, and the whole mill had to stop. 47 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,760 Basically, the transmission from the water wheel 48 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:09,240 comes up the shaft - the vertical shaft - then it's transmitted 49 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:14,000 into these long ones, which are called wind shafts. 50 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,560 In reality, these are not very long. 51 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:21,760 When the torque started at one end, the other end didn't move for a bit, 52 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:26,440 so it actually twisted the shaft, there was such great weight on them. 53 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:33,880 They started off at the driven end quite thick. By the time they'd gone the full length of the weaving shed, 54 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:39,280 they kept stepping down a bit in diameter cos of the twisting action. 55 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:43,960 It became quite an art, setting up wind shafts. 56 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,600 CLACKING These things are called looms, 57 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,040 for spinning cloth with. 58 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:52,680 The noise levels are terrific. 59 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:56,040 Can you imagine what it must have been like 60 00:04:56,040 --> 00:04:59,000 in a room with 1,500 of these things 61 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,640 all going at the same time 62 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,080 for 16 hours a day? 63 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:10,600 CLACKING OF INDIVIDUAL LOOMS ADDS UP TO RHYTHMIC CRASHING 64 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:22,960 Water wheels were very economical to run and all of that, like, 65 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:25,560 but there were one big problem. 66 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:30,840 In times of drought, the work stopped and everybody had to go home. 67 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:36,720 They had to bring in another way to drive the machines. 68 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:41,880 Steam power was only introduced, really, to help out the water wheel. 69 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:48,360 Forward-thinking mill owners soon realised that it were a better form of power. 70 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:52,160 In 1810, Samuel Greg, the mill owner, 71 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:54,880 installed a beam engine, 72 00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:00,640 not to be the main source of power but to help the water wheel in a drought. 73 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:04,200 In 1836, 74 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,040 Mr Greg replaced his original engine 75 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:11,880 with a Boulton and Watt beam engine of all of 20 horsepower. 76 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:16,080 By the end of the 18th century, Boulton and Watt 77 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,440 had taken the lead in steam engine technology. 78 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,680 Up to this time, all the early engines, 79 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,360 including Watt's, could only pump water. 80 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:32,880 But in the 1790s, because of the introduction of machines like these to the textile industries, 81 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:36,720 a new type of engine was needed to power them. 82 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:41,960 The early steam engines had been built using quite primitive methods. 83 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,200 The blacksmith had done everything by eye. 84 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:47,640 But all this was to change. 85 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:53,720 Boulton and Watt worked everything out in advance with measured drawings, 86 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:57,600 architectural-style, for all the machines and parts. 87 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:03,360 It was really the beginning of the engineering industry as we know it. 88 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:10,080 Birmingham City Libraries have a collection of Watt's papers and drawings, 89 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,640 including some relating to an engine 90 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,760 built for a Manchester cotton mill. 91 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:22,200 This is an agreement between James Watt and Matthew Boulton and their customer, 92 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:26,000 Peter Drinkwater, a Manchester cotton mill owner. 93 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:32,400 While Drinkwater was having the engine built, he obviously decided 94 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:37,440 he needed more power. He originally asked them to build a 6hp engine. 95 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:44,080 But he changed his mind, so they had to change the specification to eight horses. 96 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:49,640 The change was incorporated into the agreement. "Eight good horses"! 97 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,680 Not eight weak horses, but eight good horses! 98 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:59,360 James Watt introduced the term "horsepower" into engineering usage. 99 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,720 Boulton and Watt were very keen to define 100 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,520 exactly what their engines were being used for, so this sets out 101 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:13,040 that the engine's being used for preparing and carding cotton. 102 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:18,680 Drinkwater has to apply to Watt and Boulton for their consent. Yeah. 103 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:25,040 He were pretty strict on all this tackle. He was. It was all to protect his patent. 104 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,880 This is the actual drawing 105 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:32,240 for the Drinkwater engine for Manchester. 106 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:36,360 All the alterations are marked on in red. 107 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:41,800 The interesting bit is, where they decided to change it from 6hp to 8hp, 108 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:47,000 they've put another couple of inches in the diameter of the cylinder. Yes. 109 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:52,400 They've crossed out the original 14 inches and increased it to 16. 110 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:54,200 On the beam, 111 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:59,720 they specify the wood - "seasoned, straight-grained, young oak". 112 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:06,480 The spring beams, across the top, are made out of deal, much softer than oak. 113 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:10,840 The steam engine had arrived and it had a massive impact. 114 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:17,400 The rapid rise in manufacturing completely altered the whole skyline. 115 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:24,320 Pithead gears like this one, at Beamish Open Air Museum, sprang up all over the skyline. 116 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:30,360 It wasn't long before the mine owners realised that, as well as pumping water, 117 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,840 steam engines could be used to lower men down to get to the work quicker, 118 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,360 and, of course, bring up the end product - 119 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,120 cage after cage of coal. 120 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,440 This is one of the earliest types of this winder. 121 00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:03,560 They were quite common in the north-east of England - the vertical steam winding engine - 122 00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:09,360 which, in its time, will have brought up millions of tons of coal 123 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:15,040 in, no doubt, a cage with two decks and two tubs in each deck. 124 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:19,520 There'd be five or six hundredweight in each tub every time. 125 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:23,680 And it would wind the men up and down as well, 126 00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:27,280 but a bit slower than what they wound the coal. 127 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:34,600 The engine driver here's got to get the coal coming up as fast as he could for the management. 128 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:40,840 Coal production soared and shafts got deeper, which enabled the manufacturers 129 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:45,120 to install more steam engines and burn more coal 130 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:48,640 and it's really what made Great Britain great. 131 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:53,920 By the middle of the 19th century, 132 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:58,520 the steam engine had been harnessed to nearly every industry. 133 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:02,920 It were cheap to run, it made manufacturing much easier 134 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:06,320 and the Industrial Revolution had arrived. 135 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:11,920 And it had a massive effect on the lives of ordinary working people. 136 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:16,760 They began to move from the country to the new industrial cities. 137 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:21,560 These were springing up close to the coalfields and transport links 138 00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:24,120 that brought raw materials to them. 139 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:30,400 This is the Etruscan Bone and Flint Mill in Stoke-on-Trent. 140 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:34,880 You might be wondering what a bone and flint mill is. 141 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:39,360 Well, crushed bones and flints are ingredients of bone china. 142 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:44,720 Here in Etruria, it was a centre of crushing bones and flints up 143 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:48,800 to put fine bone china on the tables of the gentry. 144 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:52,320 Inside, there's the trusty old beam engine. 145 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:55,800 This one is a copy of a Boulton and Watt engine 146 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:58,240 made in Salford in the 1820s. 147 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:00,880 The drive shaft goes 148 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:04,560 through a hole in the wall to drive the machines. 149 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:08,000 This is the other side of the hole in the wall. 150 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,800 It's called the gear room and you can see why, with these cog wheels. 151 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:15,720 What happens here is it spreads out 152 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:20,600 the rotary motion of the beam engine into two long, horizontal shafts. 153 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:23,840 Then, through these big bevel gears, 154 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:28,960 it drives vertical shafts to the mixing pans upstairs. 155 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:35,080 The vertical shafts came up from down below in the middle of these great pans 156 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:40,040 and turned round these big paddles and mixed up the flint and the bone. 157 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:47,360 Before being put in the pans, they were burned in two kilns downstairs and they added all the lot, 158 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:50,920 poured in the water and set the thing in motion. 159 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:57,920 And the stones and the paddles, turning all the lot round, ground it into a beautiful, white, fine slurry. 160 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:03,680 To make it all work, they had to have an efficient way of raising steam. 161 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,760 This is what's known as a Cornish boiler, 162 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:15,920 reputedly invented by Richard Trevithick in Cornwall - that's why it's called a Cornish boiler. 163 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:19,120 Basically, it's quite a simple thing. 164 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:25,400 It's an iron tube with two end-plates. There's another iron tube, of a smaller diameter, 165 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:30,880 which is this, termed the fire tube, which goes from one end to the other. 166 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:34,120 And at the front end of this tube, 167 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:38,880 a fire is lighted on the grate and the products of combustion 168 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:44,280 go round the end of the back of the boiler up there and along the sides, 169 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:46,960 and, finally, up the chimney. 170 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:51,960 They utilise as much of the heat as they can from the products of combustion. 171 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,440 They only have a fire in here a few times a year. 172 00:13:55,440 --> 00:14:00,520 But, at home, I've got steam up most of the time. It's important to know 173 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,040 where the water level is. 174 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:07,320 This is the water gauge. When you open the valve, 175 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:11,960 the steam pressure inside fires the water down. 176 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:16,160 When you shut the valve, it's forced in at the bottom 177 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:19,440 by the water pressure and you can see it rise up again. 178 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:22,760 A bit higher up is the pressure gauge, 179 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,400 a clock with a steel, spiral tube inside it. 180 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:30,960 When it gets up to pressure, or its pressure's rising, 181 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,480 it works a quadrant and a rack 182 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:39,720 and it registers on a needle the pounds upon the square inch that's in the boiler. 183 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,160 The steam at the back 184 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:46,200 is not the boiler leaking - it's the safety valve. 185 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,880 Without that, it would blow up! 186 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:52,680 People don't realise, really, the power of steam. 187 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:57,840 This boiler looks peaceful and it's not making any funny noises, 188 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,880 and there's only 75lb per square inch in it. 189 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:04,320 Other than it being very hot, 190 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:07,160 it's like a potential bomb, in a way. 191 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:11,760 This is like a demonstration of what's inside - you know. 192 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:15,680 ROARING HISS 193 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,680 HISSING CONTINUES 194 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:25,240 SILENCE 195 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:26,880 Yeah. 196 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,360 You see - all that pent-up power inside. 197 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:33,640 Of course, we all know, in the olden days, 198 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:38,640 there were lots and lots of boiler explosions when things went wrong. 199 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:42,320 One day, a newspaperman came with his cameraman. 200 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:47,600 And the cameraman said - he were getting on a bit, the cameraman - 201 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:52,240 he said, "When I were a lad and I worked for the Chorley Guardian, 202 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:57,200 "the editor said, 'Go to the weaving shed. There's been an explosion.'" 203 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:02,120 He said, "I set off with me camera and arrived at this weaving shed, 204 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:06,880 "to be greeted by an unbelievable scene of carnage and disaster." 205 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:10,920 In the weaving shed, which was mainly run by women, 206 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:15,760 all the machinery started going round at 1,000 miles an hour. 207 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:19,960 The whole works looked like it would fall down. 208 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:25,640 The governors on the engine had gone wrong. Revolutions built up. 209 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,240 Two of them in the engine room. 210 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:35,040 One says, "I'll get the women out. You see the engineer about getting the engine stopped." 211 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:40,000 The guy going to the engine house was halfway across the mill yard 212 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:44,000 when the whole thing exploded and he ended up dead. 213 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,960 But the man in charge of the engine, who was turning the stop valve off, 214 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:55,800 had just got it shut when the whole thing blew apart and all it did was break his arm - he survived. 215 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,240 But bits of the engine were going 216 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:04,160 through Coronation Street-type rooftops 500 yards down the road. 217 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:08,800 And that were quite late on - 1956, or something like that. 218 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:16,440 But in spite of the dangers, it was still a very efficient way of driving the wheels of industry, 219 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:21,160 especially as steam engine technology moved on. 220 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:27,880 By the mid-19th century, Boulton and Watt's rotating beam engine began to give way to this thing - 221 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,400 the horizontal steam engine. 222 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:35,640 The man who had the idea of connecting the cylinder to the crankshaft 223 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:39,320 is reputed to have been Richard Trevithick. 224 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:45,320 He and a gentleman in Leeds, Matthew Murray, developed the horizontal engine. 225 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:49,040 There were thousands of engines like this made, 226 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,680 from little, teeny ones, 3ft long, 227 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,560 to the biggest one on record, made by Hick Hargreaves's of Bolton. 228 00:17:56,560 --> 00:18:00,680 Reputedly, the cylinder were ten feet long. 229 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:06,720 The horizontal steam engine was much easier to manufacture in all sizes 230 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:10,560 and it didn't need a great big, tall engine room. 231 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:15,240 To build an engine like this, all you needed was a big lathe, 232 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,040 a shaper and a good iron founder, 233 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:21,960 and you could make it in a shed in the back yard. I've more or less done it myself, once or twice. 234 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:26,200 That's the cylinder. That's the connecting rod. 235 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:31,080 That's the crank pin. There's no bending or forging involved in it. 236 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:34,840 The crankshaft is an iron bar. The disc is cast. 237 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:38,280 And the flywheel is cast in two halves. 238 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,640 It was a very efficient way of driving machinery. 239 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,080 And as these engines got bigger and bigger, 240 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:49,040 they could drive literally hundreds of machines 241 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,200 on four or five floors of a factory. 242 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:57,320 When steam began to replace water power, two things were needed - 243 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,880 plenty of coal and a good transport system. 244 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:07,240 Here in Wigan, where coal stuck out the floor five foot thick nearly everywhere, 245 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:10,080 it fast became a boomtown. 246 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:12,760 I suppose it was like anywhere else. 247 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:19,400 In winter, you wouldn't be able to see for the smoke coming out of the great chimneys. 248 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:23,720 All the mill owners and pit owners lived in country mansions 249 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:28,320 built out of the ill-gotten gains of the lads down below. 250 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:32,760 The earliest factories only employed 20 or 30 people. 251 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:39,160 But by the mid-19th century, they'd built great places like this behind me, 252 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:45,600 which could do many different processes and employ hundreds of people. 253 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:49,080 This is Trencherfield Mill at Wigan Pier, 254 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:54,160 and it houses one of the world's biggest surviving mill steam engines. 255 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:57,640 William Woods built his mill here in 1907. 256 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:01,280 It was a state-of-the-art spinning mill - 257 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:03,920 fireproof floors, five storeys high, 258 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,560 and room for 1,000 employees. 259 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:11,440 And now I'm going to see if they'll let me play with the engine. 260 00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:18,760 This great engine behind me 261 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,000 once drove all the machinery on five floors. 262 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:26,880 It were built by John and Edward Wood's of Bolton about 1907. 263 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,280 I'm going to have a do at making it go. 264 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:32,760 You've got to turn this great valve. 265 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:37,440 If all the connecting rods are in the right shop, it'll set off. 266 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,040 Here we go. HE GRUNTS 267 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:42,800 Hmm. 268 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:45,680 Bit stiff on the valve. STEAM HISSES 269 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:48,120 WHEEL SQUEAKS 270 00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:50,840 CLATTERING 271 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:56,320 This engine is what's known as a "tandem cross compound". 272 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:59,760 Triple expansion - it's got four cylinders. 273 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:03,320 In the small ones comes the high-pressure steam. 274 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:05,680 It's exhausted into a receiver 275 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:10,160 and then it goes into the low-pressure ones - the big'uns. 276 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,400 And when it had the grand opening, 277 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,480 each side of the engine were christened. 278 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:24,040 They're called Rina and Helen - the daughters of the engineering company that built 'em. 279 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:28,440 It's 2,500 horsepower. 280 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:36,640 METAL CLATTERS AND STEAM HISSES 281 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:08,920 It's fantastic, in't it, really, the size of the bits and pieces? 282 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:12,440 You know, you think about your Mamod at home, 283 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:18,080 and you've got a connecting rod here which must weigh about three tonnes. 284 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:21,320 An incredible piece of tackle! 285 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,600 They did things in a grand style. 286 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:36,480 This particular part of the building is called the rope race. 287 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:41,320 The reason for that is obvious - the ropes are all racing round! 288 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,800 There'd be as many as four or five to each floor, 289 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,640 and altogether, on the drum, 290 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:54,920 I think there's 55 grooves and the drum weighs 70 tonnes - that's one hell of a wheel, innit? 291 00:22:54,920 --> 00:23:01,760 In the days when these things were run commercially, this were quite a frightening place to be. 292 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,120 There's daylight shining in now, 293 00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:11,320 but when it was full of rope all going in different directions, it were quite frightening. 294 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:16,080 The only time they could mend them was in the middle of the night. 295 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,680 The rope splicer came at night - 296 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:24,400 they didn't do many night shifts at cotton mills - to splice a new piece. 297 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:26,920 Two inches' diameter. 298 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,160 Made of cotton. 299 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,880 The industrialisation of the great cities 300 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:46,800 put a terrible strain on the antiquated water and sewage systems. 301 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,360 Many new reservoirs had to be built 302 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:54,360 and, to pump water to them, many new pumping stations had to be built. 303 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:56,920 This is one of the more ornate. 304 00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,680 Papplewick, built in 1884, 305 00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:06,640 pumped water to the city of Nottingham all the way through till 1969. 306 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:13,240 These are the six Lancashire boilers that made the steam to drive the pumping engines. 307 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,760 They were made in Manchester by W & J Galloway. 308 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:24,000 Mr Galloway improved the Lancashire boiler by inserting vertical water tubes at the end of the fire tubes, 309 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,760 which greatly increased the steaming capabilities. 310 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,280 They used to burn five tons of coal a day on three of them. 311 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:37,360 The others were on standby. They did that at waterworks, just in case. 312 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:40,600 The pressure's getting a bit low now. 313 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:47,280 Come on, Geoff. I've done one side, Fred, so if you'll fire this side... Right. 314 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,680 These two double-acting beam engines 315 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:17,640 are thought to be the last two that James Watt and Company ever made. 316 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:22,000 They pump 1.5 million gallons of water a day 317 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,640 from a well 200 feet deep, 318 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,600 and then a further elevation of another 100 feet, 319 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:33,160 and then it went by gravity all the way to Nottingham. 320 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,680 Although these engines were built in 1881, 321 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:43,360 they still use the old-fashioned Cornish principle, which proves how successful and economical 322 00:25:43,360 --> 00:25:46,080 the Cornish beam engines were, 323 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:50,240 and how they lent themselves to pumping water. 324 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,800 It's interesting that, 325 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,520 by this time, James Watt and Company 326 00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,600 had reverted to using high-pressure steam. 327 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,200 James Watt himself once said 328 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:09,280 that Richard Trevithick should be hung for using high-pressure steam because of its danger. 329 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,000 RHYTHMIC CLATTER AND HISSING STEAM 330 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,920 That lovely noise takes me back a bit! 331 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:23,560 I remember, as a lad of about 16 or 17, 332 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:27,880 rather fearful, climbing the engine house steps 333 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:34,680 and looking at the thing going round through the window and seeing the engine minder in an easy chair. 334 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,480 But he wouldn't be asleep - 335 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,240 he'd be listening for any strange change 336 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:46,720 in the pattern of noise coming from the thing, denoting something wrong. 337 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:51,400 CLACKING AND CLICKING 338 00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:02,920 These great beams transfer the power from the piston rod 339 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,440 to the pump rods down the well, or the shaft. 340 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:11,920 They weigh 13 tonnes apiece. Ever wondered how they got them up here? 341 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:16,200 There were no fancy cranes then! Pictures exist, 342 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:20,240 showing great piles and baulks of timber. 343 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:25,200 They were basically jacking up the beam as the engine room came up. 344 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,800 They slid them in, over the central beam that they pivot on. 345 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:35,440 The hangers in the roof weren't for lifting the whole thing up. 346 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:41,160 They were for lifting one end up and maybe replacing a bearing. 347 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:48,280 The engines and the building were finished well under budget. 348 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:51,480 And with all the money they had left over, 349 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:57,000 they made embellishments like stained glass and terracotta bits outside 350 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,440 and fish and birds and everything. 351 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,960 It's sad that the general public 352 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:07,360 never saw any of this - it was only the waterworks superintendent 353 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:10,880 and maybe some of the operatives, you know. 354 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:17,120 But it shows how proud the Victorians were of their engineering achievements.