Engines > From Kits/Castings

1802 Bell Crank Engine

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Jo:
This will probably be the earliest engine I will attempt to build, and I was lucky enough to find some details of the original engine:



"The 1802 Bell crank engine is a very compact form of Mr Watt's double rotative engine which was arranged by Mr Murdock and Mr Southern, for steam-engines of small power, to enable them to be placed within a less space than Mr Watt's original construction, and also that they may be set up in any workshop or apartment of a manufacturey, without requiring a particular building for the engine. For this purpose they contrived to support one part of the engine by another"

Anthony Mount designed the model and published it in Engineering in Miniature. I have not seen the original model as Anthony was talked into selling it  :hellno: and later had to make himself a second:



Clearly it was not a very popular model engine as the original casting run was only 10 casting sets and they took nearly 10 years to sell  :shrug:. There has been at least one subsequent casting run but they were unable to get the quality necessary for the Cast Iron components and later ones have bronze flywheels and cam ring  :ShakeHead:. This is one of those original 10 casting sets :whoohoo:



As casting sets go it has lots of challenging parts which could account for so few people wanting to build one. If I say it is unlike any other steam engine I have ever built you will understand why it has been taking up space on my dinning table for a couple of weeks now  :naughty:

Jo

Jo:
 :headscratch: It is a fascinating little engine to watch run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HrecmErhKQ

As is traditional I will be modifying mine  ;)

Jo

moerman:
Jo, that is indeed fascinating. Your description makes it sound as if this casting is a rare vintage product. Is it?

Wout

ths:
That is an interesting motion to watch, and I'm glad that tradition will be upheld. So, what are you going to do? Hugh.

Jasonb:
And I though you said this one had gone back into storage :headscratch: good to see it out though.

The castings can still be bought though with the GM parts, not much of a problem as the flywheel is painted and its only the bare edge of the cam ring that would look wrong

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