0:00:21 > 0:00:24STEAM HISSES
0:00:26 > 0:00:29This is my back garden.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Everything's driven by steam. I don't need electricity.
0:00:33 > 0:00:40The boiler produces the steam to drive three steam engines that work all of my workshop.
0:00:40 > 0:00:46But the drawback, as against an electric motor, is the fact
0:00:46 > 0:00:50that you can't just press a button and start it off.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54It takes me roughly a day to get the whole place going.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00With belt-driven machinery, just at the crucial moment, the belt breaks
0:01:00 > 0:01:04and the job's stopped - but it's very cheap.
0:01:06 > 0:01:13At one time it was all steam engines round here, driving cotton mills, engineering works and the likes.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18Now this must be the only steam-powered works in all of Bolton.
0:01:18 > 0:01:25For nearly 200 years, steam drove the wheels of industry, making Britain
0:01:25 > 0:01:28the greatest industrial nation in the world.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31But it hadn't always been the case.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36Steam power didn't really cause the Industrial Revolution,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39but it played a very important part in it.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44The factory system developed from the textile industry
0:01:44 > 0:01:48a long time before the steam engine became fully developed.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54Quarry Bank Mill at Styal is hidden away behind Manchester Airport.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59When the mill was first built, in the latter half of the 18th century,
0:01:59 > 0:02:04they used water power to drive the revolutionary spinning machinery.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07It is, without a doubt, one of the best places
0:02:07 > 0:02:11where you can see steam and water power working together.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16The original water wheel was designed and built
0:02:16 > 0:02:19by Sir William Fairbairn of Manchester,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24who was very famous for his what they call "suspension" water wheels.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29They put the first segment in the bottom of the water wheel pit
0:02:29 > 0:02:32and anchor it to the spokes so it's suspended,
0:02:32 > 0:02:37move it round one and put another in, move it round one and put another in.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Eventually, it would end up round.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45When this water wheel was installed, steam engines were well developed.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48But they were a bit unreliable.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53This thing runs for nothing, with no breakdowns, coal and all that.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56It still was a formidable source of power.
0:02:56 > 0:03:02You can see, with the size of it, working through these reduction gears,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06it could drive all the machinery in the mill.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11WATER TRICKLES
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Even today, the weaving shed takes its power from the water wheel.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19This is part of the transmission.
0:03:19 > 0:03:26A great, vertical shaft comes up through three floors to this level, where the weaving shed is.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32The bevel gears, the horizontal shaft, then the counter-shafts, and then the looms proper.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34These things always caused trouble.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37The great weight of a vertical shaft,
0:03:37 > 0:03:43especially in spinning mills, which were four and five storeys high... the problem was
0:03:43 > 0:03:49getting the weight of each length of the shaft equalised on thrust bearings.
0:03:49 > 0:03:56They could never quite get it right and it always got hot at the bottom, and the whole mill had to stop.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03Basically, the transmission from the water wheel
0:04:03 > 0:04:08comes up the shaft - the vertical shaft - then it's transmitted
0:04:08 > 0:04:13into these long ones, which are called wind shafts.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16In reality, these are not very long.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21When the torque started at one end, the other end didn't move for a bit,
0:04:21 > 0:04:26so it actually twisted the shaft, there was such great weight on them.
0:04:26 > 0:04:33They started off at the driven end quite thick. By the time they'd gone the full length of the weaving shed,
0:04:33 > 0:04:39they kept stepping down a bit in diameter cos of the twisting action.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43It became quite an art, setting up wind shafts.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47CLACKING These things are called looms,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49for spinning cloth with.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52The noise levels are terrific.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Can you imagine what it must have been like
0:04:55 > 0:04:58in a room with 1,500 of these things
0:04:58 > 0:05:01all going at the same time
0:05:01 > 0:05:03for 16 hours a day?
0:05:06 > 0:05:10CLACKING OF INDIVIDUAL LOOMS ADDS UP TO RHYTHMIC CRASHING
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Water wheels were very economical to run and all of that, like,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25but there were one big problem.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30In times of drought, the work stopped and everybody had to go home.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36They had to bring in another way to drive the machines.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41Steam power was only introduced, really, to help out the water wheel.
0:05:41 > 0:05:48Forward-thinking mill owners soon realised that it were a better form of power.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52In 1810, Samuel Greg, the mill owner,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54installed a beam engine,
0:05:54 > 0:06:00not to be the main source of power but to help the water wheel in a drought.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04In 1836,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06Mr Greg replaced his original engine
0:06:06 > 0:06:11with a Boulton and Watt beam engine of all of 20 horsepower.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15By the end of the 18th century, Boulton and Watt
0:06:15 > 0:06:19had taken the lead in steam engine technology.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Up to this time, all the early engines,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26including Watt's, could only pump water.
0:06:26 > 0:06:32But in the 1790s, because of the introduction of machines like these to the textile industries,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36a new type of engine was needed to power them.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41The early steam engines had been built using quite primitive methods.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44The blacksmith had done everything by eye.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47But all this was to change.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53Boulton and Watt worked everything out in advance with measured drawings,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57architectural-style, for all the machines and parts.
0:06:57 > 0:07:03It was really the beginning of the engineering industry as we know it.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09Birmingham City Libraries have a collection of Watt's papers and drawings,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12including some relating to an engine
0:07:12 > 0:07:15built for a Manchester cotton mill.
0:07:15 > 0:07:22This is an agreement between James Watt and Matthew Boulton and their customer,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Peter Drinkwater, a Manchester cotton mill owner.
0:07:25 > 0:07:32While Drinkwater was having the engine built, he obviously decided
0:07:32 > 0:07:37he needed more power. He originally asked them to build a 6hp engine.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43But he changed his mind, so they had to change the specification to eight horses.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49- The change was incorporated into the agreement.- "Eight good horses"!
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Not eight weak horses, but eight good horses!
0:07:53 > 0:07:59James Watt introduced the term "horsepower" into engineering usage.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Boulton and Watt were very keen to define
0:08:02 > 0:08:07exactly what their engines were being used for, so this sets out
0:08:07 > 0:08:12that the engine's being used for preparing and carding cotton.
0:08:12 > 0:08:18- Drinkwater has to apply to Watt and Boulton for their consent.- Yeah.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24- He were pretty strict on all this tackle.- He was. It was all to protect his patent.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27This is the actual drawing
0:08:27 > 0:08:32for the Drinkwater engine for Manchester.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36All the alterations are marked on in red.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41The interesting bit is, where they decided to change it from 6hp to 8hp,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46- they've put another couple of inches in the diameter of the cylinder.- Yes.
0:08:46 > 0:08:52They've crossed out the original 14 inches and increased it to 16.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54On the beam,
0:08:54 > 0:08:59they specify the wood - "seasoned, straight-grained, young oak".
0:08:59 > 0:09:06The spring beams, across the top, are made out of deal, much softer than oak.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10The steam engine had arrived and it had a massive impact.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17The rapid rise in manufacturing completely altered the whole skyline.
0:09:17 > 0:09:24Pithead gears like this one, at Beamish Open Air Museum, sprang up all over the skyline.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30It wasn't long before the mine owners realised that, as well as pumping water,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34steam engines could be used to lower men down to get to the work quicker,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and, of course, bring up the end product -
0:09:38 > 0:09:41cage after cage of coal.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56This is one of the earliest types of this winder.
0:09:56 > 0:10:03They were quite common in the north-east of England - the vertical steam winding engine -
0:10:03 > 0:10:09which, in its time, will have brought up millions of tons of coal
0:10:09 > 0:10:14in, no doubt, a cage with two decks and two tubs in each deck.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19There'd be five or six hundredweight in each tub every time.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23And it would wind the men up and down as well,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27but a bit slower than what they wound the coal.
0:10:27 > 0:10:34The engine driver here's got to get the coal coming up as fast as he could for the management.
0:10:34 > 0:10:40Coal production soared and shafts got deeper, which enabled the manufacturers
0:10:40 > 0:10:44to install more steam engines and burn more coal
0:10:44 > 0:10:48and it's really what made Great Britain great.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53By the middle of the 19th century,
0:10:53 > 0:10:58the steam engine had been harnessed to nearly every industry.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02It were cheap to run, it made manufacturing much easier
0:11:02 > 0:11:06and the Industrial Revolution had arrived.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11And it had a massive effect on the lives of ordinary working people.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16They began to move from the country to the new industrial cities.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21These were springing up close to the coalfields and transport links
0:11:21 > 0:11:24that brought raw materials to them.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30This is the Etruscan Bone and Flint Mill in Stoke-on-Trent.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34You might be wondering what a bone and flint mill is.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39Well, crushed bones and flints are ingredients of bone china.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44Here in Etruria, it was a centre of crushing bones and flints up
0:11:44 > 0:11:48to put fine bone china on the tables of the gentry.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Inside, there's the trusty old beam engine.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55This one is a copy of a Boulton and Watt engine
0:11:55 > 0:11:58made in Salford in the 1820s.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00The drive shaft goes
0:12:00 > 0:12:04through a hole in the wall to drive the machines.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07This is the other side of the hole in the wall.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12It's called the gear room and you can see why, with these cog wheels.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15What happens here is it spreads out
0:12:15 > 0:12:20the rotary motion of the beam engine into two long, horizontal shafts.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Then, through these big bevel gears,
0:12:23 > 0:12:28it drives vertical shafts to the mixing pans upstairs.
0:12:28 > 0:12:34The vertical shafts came up from down below in the middle of these great pans
0:12:34 > 0:12:39and turned round these big paddles and mixed up the flint and the bone.
0:12:39 > 0:12:47Before being put in the pans, they were burned in two kilns downstairs and they added all the lot,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50poured in the water and set the thing in motion.
0:12:50 > 0:12:57And the stones and the paddles, turning all the lot round, ground it into a beautiful, white, fine slurry.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03To make it all work, they had to have an efficient way of raising steam.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08This is what's known as a Cornish boiler,
0:13:08 > 0:13:15reputedly invented by Richard Trevithick in Cornwall - that's why it's called a Cornish boiler.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Basically, it's quite a simple thing.
0:13:18 > 0:13:25It's an iron tube with two end-plates. There's another iron tube, of a smaller diameter,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30which is this, termed the fire tube, which goes from one end to the other.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33And at the front end of this tube,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38a fire is lighted on the grate and the products of combustion
0:13:38 > 0:13:44go round the end of the back of the boiler up there and along the sides,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46and, finally, up the chimney.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51They utilise as much of the heat as they can from the products of combustion.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55They only have a fire in here a few times a year.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00But, at home, I've got steam up most of the time. It's important to know
0:14:00 > 0:14:02where the water level is.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07This is the water gauge. When you open the valve,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11the steam pressure inside fires the water down.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16When you shut the valve, it's forced in at the bottom
0:14:16 > 0:14:19by the water pressure and you can see it rise up again.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22A bit higher up is the pressure gauge,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26a clock with a steel, spiral tube inside it.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30When it gets up to pressure, or its pressure's rising,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33it works a quadrant and a rack
0:14:33 > 0:14:39and it registers on a needle the pounds upon the square inch that's in the boiler.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42The steam at the back
0:14:42 > 0:14:46is not the boiler leaking - it's the safety valve.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Without that, it would blow up!
0:14:48 > 0:14:52People don't realise, really, the power of steam.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57This boiler looks peaceful and it's not making any funny noises,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01and there's only 75lb per square inch in it.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Other than it being very hot,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07it's like a potential bomb, in a way.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11This is like a demonstration of what's inside - you know.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15ROARING HISS
0:15:18 > 0:15:22HISSING CONTINUES
0:15:23 > 0:15:25SILENCE
0:15:25 > 0:15:26Yeah.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30You see - all that pent-up power inside.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Of course, we all know, in the olden days,
0:15:33 > 0:15:38there were lots and lots of boiler explosions when things went wrong.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42One day, a newspaperman came with his cameraman.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47And the cameraman said - he were getting on a bit, the cameraman -
0:15:47 > 0:15:52he said, "When I were a lad and I worked for the Chorley Guardian,
0:15:52 > 0:15:57"the editor said, 'Go to the weaving shed. There's been an explosion.'"
0:15:57 > 0:16:01He said, "I set off with me camera and arrived at this weaving shed,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06"to be greeted by an unbelievable scene of carnage and disaster."
0:16:06 > 0:16:10In the weaving shed, which was mainly run by women,
0:16:10 > 0:16:15all the machinery started going round at 1,000 miles an hour.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19The whole works looked like it would fall down.
0:16:19 > 0:16:25The governors on the engine had gone wrong. Revolutions built up.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Two of them in the engine room.
0:16:28 > 0:16:34One says, "I'll get the women out. You see the engineer about getting the engine stopped."
0:16:34 > 0:16:39The guy going to the engine house was halfway across the mill yard
0:16:39 > 0:16:43when the whole thing exploded and he ended up dead.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48But the man in charge of the engine, who was turning the stop valve off,
0:16:48 > 0:16:55had just got it shut when the whole thing blew apart and all it did was break his arm - he survived.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58But bits of the engine were going
0:16:58 > 0:17:03through Coronation Street-type rooftops 500 yards down the road.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08And that were quite late on - 1956, or something like that.
0:17:08 > 0:17:16But in spite of the dangers, it was still a very efficient way of driving the wheels of industry,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20especially as steam engine technology moved on.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27By the mid-19th century, Boulton and Watt's rotating beam engine began to give way to this thing -
0:17:27 > 0:17:30the horizontal steam engine.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35The man who had the idea of connecting the cylinder to the crankshaft
0:17:35 > 0:17:39is reputed to have been Richard Trevithick.
0:17:39 > 0:17:45He and a gentleman in Leeds, Matthew Murray, developed the horizontal engine.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48There were thousands of engines like this made,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51from little, teeny ones, 3ft long,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56to the biggest one on record, made by Hick Hargreaves's of Bolton.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00Reputedly, the cylinder were ten feet long.
0:18:00 > 0:18:06The horizontal steam engine was much easier to manufacture in all sizes
0:18:06 > 0:18:10and it didn't need a great big, tall engine room.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15To build an engine like this, all you needed was a big lathe,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17a shaper and a good iron founder,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21and you could make it in a shed in the back yard. I've more or less done it myself, once or twice.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26That's the cylinder. That's the connecting rod.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30That's the crank pin. There's no bending or forging involved in it.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34The crankshaft is an iron bar. The disc is cast.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38And the flywheel is cast in two halves.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41It was a very efficient way of driving machinery.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44And as these engines got bigger and bigger,
0:18:44 > 0:18:48they could drive literally hundreds of machines
0:18:48 > 0:18:52on four or five floors of a factory.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57When steam began to replace water power, two things were needed -
0:18:57 > 0:19:00plenty of coal and a good transport system.
0:19:00 > 0:19:07Here in Wigan, where coal stuck out the floor five foot thick nearly everywhere,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09it fast became a boomtown.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12I suppose it was like anywhere else.
0:19:12 > 0:19:19In winter, you wouldn't be able to see for the smoke coming out of the great chimneys.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23All the mill owners and pit owners lived in country mansions
0:19:23 > 0:19:28built out of the ill-gotten gains of the lads down below.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32The earliest factories only employed 20 or 30 people.
0:19:32 > 0:19:39But by the mid-19th century, they'd built great places like this behind me,
0:19:39 > 0:19:45which could do many different processes and employ hundreds of people.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48This is Trencherfield Mill at Wigan Pier,
0:19:48 > 0:19:54and it houses one of the world's biggest surviving mill steam engines.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57William Woods built his mill here in 1907.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01It was a state-of-the-art spinning mill -
0:20:01 > 0:20:03fireproof floors, five storeys high,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06and room for 1,000 employees.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11And now I'm going to see if they'll let me play with the engine.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18This great engine behind me
0:20:18 > 0:20:21once drove all the machinery on five floors.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26It were built by John and Edward Wood's of Bolton about 1907.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30I'm going to have a do at making it go.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32You've got to turn this great valve.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37If all the connecting rods are in the right shop, it'll set off.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Here we go. HE GRUNTS
0:20:41 > 0:20:42Hmm.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Bit stiff on the valve. STEAM HISSES
0:20:45 > 0:20:48WHEEL SQUEAKS
0:20:48 > 0:20:50CLATTERING
0:20:50 > 0:20:56This engine is what's known as a "tandem cross compound".
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Triple expansion - it's got four cylinders.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03In the small ones comes the high-pressure steam.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05It's exhausted into a receiver
0:21:05 > 0:21:10and then it goes into the low-pressure ones - the big'uns.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13And when it had the grand opening,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17each side of the engine were christened.
0:21:17 > 0:21:23They're called Rina and Helen - the daughters of the engineering company that built 'em.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28It's 2,500 horsepower.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36METAL CLATTERS AND STEAM HISSES
0:22:03 > 0:22:08It's fantastic, in't it, really, the size of the bits and pieces?
0:22:08 > 0:22:12You know, you think about your Mamod at home,
0:22:12 > 0:22:17and you've got a connecting rod here which must weigh about three tonnes.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21An incredible piece of tackle!
0:22:22 > 0:22:25They did things in a grand style.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36This particular part of the building is called the rope race.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41The reason for that is obvious - the ropes are all racing round!
0:22:41 > 0:22:44There'd be as many as four or five to each floor,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and altogether, on the drum,
0:22:47 > 0:22:54I think there's 55 grooves and the drum weighs 70 tonnes - that's one hell of a wheel, innit?
0:22:54 > 0:23:01In the days when these things were run commercially, this were quite a frightening place to be.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03There's daylight shining in now,
0:23:03 > 0:23:11but when it was full of rope all going in different directions, it were quite frightening.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16The only time they could mend them was in the middle of the night.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18The rope splicer came at night -
0:23:18 > 0:23:24they didn't do many night shifts at cotton mills - to splice a new piece.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Two inches' diameter.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Made of cotton.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40The industrialisation of the great cities
0:23:40 > 0:23:46put a terrible strain on the antiquated water and sewage systems.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Many new reservoirs had to be built
0:23:49 > 0:23:54and, to pump water to them, many new pumping stations had to be built.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56This is one of the more ornate.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Papplewick, built in 1884,
0:23:59 > 0:24:06pumped water to the city of Nottingham all the way through till 1969.
0:24:06 > 0:24:13These are the six Lancashire boilers that made the steam to drive the pumping engines.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16They were made in Manchester by W & J Galloway.
0:24:16 > 0:24:23Mr Galloway improved the Lancashire boiler by inserting vertical water tubes at the end of the fire tubes,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27which greatly increased the steaming capabilities.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32They used to burn five tons of coal a day on three of them.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37The others were on standby. They did that at waterworks, just in case.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40The pressure's getting a bit low now.
0:24:40 > 0:24:47- Come on, Geoff. - I've done one side, Fred, so if you'll fire this side...- Right.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12These two double-acting beam engines
0:25:12 > 0:25:17are thought to be the last two that James Watt and Company ever made.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21They pump 1.5 million gallons of water a day
0:25:21 > 0:25:24from a well 200 feet deep,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28and then a further elevation of another 100 feet,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33and then it went by gravity all the way to Nottingham.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Although these engines were built in 1881,
0:25:36 > 0:25:43they still use the old-fashioned Cornish principle, which proves how successful and economical
0:25:43 > 0:25:45the Cornish beam engines were,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50and how they lent themselves to pumping water.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52It's interesting that,
0:25:52 > 0:25:56by this time, James Watt and Company
0:25:56 > 0:25:59had reverted to using high-pressure steam.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02James Watt himself once said
0:26:02 > 0:26:09that Richard Trevithick should be hung for using high-pressure steam because of its danger.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12RHYTHMIC CLATTER AND HISSING STEAM
0:26:16 > 0:26:19That lovely noise takes me back a bit!
0:26:19 > 0:26:23I remember, as a lad of about 16 or 17,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27rather fearful, climbing the engine house steps
0:26:27 > 0:26:34and looking at the thing going round through the window and seeing the engine minder in an easy chair.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37But he wouldn't be asleep -
0:26:37 > 0:26:41he'd be listening for any strange change
0:26:41 > 0:26:46in the pattern of noise coming from the thing, denoting something wrong.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51CLACKING AND CLICKING
0:26:58 > 0:27:02These great beams transfer the power from the piston rod
0:27:02 > 0:27:06to the pump rods down the well, or the shaft.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11They weigh 13 tonnes apiece. Ever wondered how they got them up here?
0:27:11 > 0:27:16There were no fancy cranes then! Pictures exist,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20showing great piles and baulks of timber.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25They were basically jacking up the beam as the engine room came up.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29They slid them in, over the central beam that they pivot on.
0:27:29 > 0:27:35The hangers in the roof weren't for lifting the whole thing up.
0:27:35 > 0:27:41They were for lifting one end up and maybe replacing a bearing.
0:27:42 > 0:27:48The engines and the building were finished well under budget.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51And with all the money they had left over,
0:27:51 > 0:27:56they made embellishments like stained glass and terracotta bits outside
0:27:56 > 0:27:59and fish and birds and everything.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01It's sad that the general public
0:28:01 > 0:28:07never saw any of this - it was only the waterworks superintendent
0:28:07 > 0:28:10and maybe some of the operatives, you know.
0:28:10 > 0:28:17But it shows how proud the Victorians were of their engineering achievements.