The horizontal engine - a double acting single.
The beam engine requires not much more than 1psi of steam.
Most of the power comes from the condenser - it's really an 'atmospheric' engine.
--> Most of the power comes from the condenser - it's really an 'atmospheric' engine.
One Monday afternoon I was sitting beside the Horizontal Engine thinking what to write for our writing group the next morning. So I just watched the engine... And wrote this:
Our steam engine
The crank goes round and round.
In and out the piston rod.
-It’s power expressed as sound!
The valve eccentric, back and forth
in syncopated rhyme
leads the piston power stroke
in slightly off – beat time
The governor balls are flashing round
at a steady rate of course,
they keep the engine’s speed just right
by centrifugal force.
The ten foot flywheel stores the power
and keeps the engine running.
The brass work gleams, as does the paint.
It’s visually stunning!
Built in 1891
a double-acting single.
Power and presence personified
It makes the senses tingle!
©Vince Chadwick (NT volunteer at Nether Alderley and Styal Mills)
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Since 2013 when the restored Nether Alderley corn mill re-opened, I have been a guide and a miller there. Here's what it's like:
Volunteering at Nether Alderley Mill
It's a tardis! Far bigger inside than it looks
from the outside, and when the miller opens the sluice to allow water through
from the mill pond the splat, splat, splat of the inrushing flow into the water
wheel buckets brings the sleeping mill to life. As the machinery gathers speed,
the floor shakes underfoot. Giant wood and iron gears grind and clank as they take
power from the water wheels to drive the mill stones. One's nose senses the
distinctive tang of fresh-milled grain in the air, confirmed by a milliard
flour motes dancing in the shafts of sunlight streaming through the roof vents.
It is a magical place, a microcosm of local history, and we volunteers are so lucky
to have it to show to our visitors.
So what’s it like to volunteer at this
fascinating place? If you’re the Miller, you’ll arrive early to prepare the
Mill for tours, opening the mill pond sluices and running the water wheels to
ensure all is well for milling. Assuming it is, the mill stones are prepared
for use and grain poured into hopper. By now the first of two tour Guides will
have arrived ready to show our visitors around. The Miller also has a role here;
as well as operating the machinery and demonstrating the milling of grain, he /
she explains to the visitors the operation of the water wheels and mill stones.
As a Guide, one welcomes our visitors and
conducts them on a structured tour of the Mill. Tours run for 45 minutes and
commence at quarter past and quarter to the hour. Thus there are usually 2
tours in operation concurrently, one running half an hour behind the other,
with the Miller participating in both (presenting to the visitors and operating
the Mill machinery). This calls for close team work with the Miller acting as
team leader and the Guides ensuring they conduct their tours to time, to enable
the inter-dependent roles of both of the Guides and of the Miller to ‘mesh’
together efficiently, rather like the mill machinery itself. Time management is
of the essence if we are to give our visitors seamless tours.
I enjoy the roles of Guide and Miller equally, though some volunteers only do guiding, and
some only milling. The Guide has the satisfaction of taking the tour through
the Mill explaining its history and operation, while the Miller participates in
tours and runs the machinery.
When I operate that penstock lever and the
ancient building rumbles into life, I feel privileged that the National Trust
has given me, if only temporarily, control of and responsibility for this
magical medieval corn mill.
Vince Chadwick
Nether Alderley Miller and Guide
Nether Alderley Mill after restoration 2011 / 12, ready for business!
