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I remember seeing similar equipment labeled as a "receiver" in steam textbooks. As I recall, the purpose was to reduce any shock wave of the first steam past the valve into the engine by allowing the steam to pre-expand before entering the engine. Not sure if that is the exact purpose on the pumping engine, but it could be.
is that a water separator makes sure all is hot that the steam is dry before the engine it would have water drains ?the bells and morcome and others have a cylinder at the steam inlet would that not be similar. John
"Seems odd, letting the initial steam expand would just reduce its pressure and reduce the work it could do. "Hi Chris, I think it was intended to work this way - Once the first "relaxed" steam had passed through to the engine, and the engine was running, the pressure in the steam chest , receiver, and at the steam valve outlet port would all be equalized. The receiver would just ease the shock wave of the initial steam flow. After this first action, the receiver would not affect load or steam flow capacity - it would just be a larger diameter part of the pipework.
The Museum Planners have certainly achieved an inspiring machine for the visual inspection..........those rows of underhead downlighting look similar to the deck downlighting of an ocean liner....& the polished brickwork on the floors It doesn't really matter what that 'vertical accumulater' type device really was, but some of your responses must be pretty close Derek