Engineering History at Summerlee: September 2012

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Recognising Scotland's Engineering Heritage

For much of the 19^th century and early 20^th century Scotland were world leaders in engineering; producing a vast array of machinery, tools and finished products. You will see a selection of rare and unique examples from the industry here on display.

Explore the machines up close, find out about the skill involved in operating them and why Scotland was at the forefront in a great age of invention and discovery.

The machinery is part of the museum’s Industrial and Associated Social History Collection which was awarded National Recognition status in 2009 by the Scottish Government. The award confirms the importance of the collection to the nation’s heritage; representing over two hundred years of Scottish industrial development.

The project has been funded by the Recognition Capital Fund administered by Museums Galleries Scotland and North Lanarkshire Council.

The Industrial and Associated Social History
Collection Cared For by North Lanarkshire
Council is Recognised as Being of National
Significance to Scotland

Early Boiler

This very simple cast iron boiler for heating water was installed in the church of St Andrew in the Square, Glasgow.

When the church was turned into a cultural centre in the early 1990s the boiler was donated to Summerlee Museum.

Butt Strap Drilling Machine

During the 1800s the steam pressure needed by steam engines got higher and higher. This meant that the outside of the boiler (called the ‘boiler shell’) had to be built very strongly.

The boiler shell was made by curving thick sheets of iron or steel into a tube. The ends were then overlapped and riveted together. A strip of iron called a ‘butt-strap’ was placed between the two ends to improve the seal.

A butt-strap and boiler shell drilling machine like this one was used to drill the holes for the rivets. The machine is lying flat now but originally stood upright with a turntable at its feet. The boiler shell was clamped to the turntable, which you can now see displayed nearby.

From Thomas Hudson and Companys Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

This illustration from a late 1800s engineering manual shows a similar machine. Our machine is bigger and was actually fixed to a column in the factory.

The drill is now displayed horizontally inside the Engineering Pavilion while the turntable is on display nearby.

Waller Steam Engine

This steam engine was used to power the flow of gas in Aberdeen Gasworks.

From the 1800s until the 1970s every town had a gasworks. This was because before natural gas was discovered under the North Sea we had to rely on ‘coal gas’ which was literally gas extracted from coal.

Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

The coal gas had to be cleaned before it could be used and this engine drove two ‘exhausters’, which pumped the gas through the various cleaning treatments before it was stored in a gas holder. This was one of several exhauster engines in the gasworks.

Stone Planing Machine

This rare machine is an example of the first type of planer for shaping granite blocks, invented in Scotland. It is probably the last survivor.

Machine tools such as this were an important advance in building construction in the mid-1800s, particularly in the North East. They made it possible to accurately work hard granite on a large scale enabling it to used as ‘ashlar’ or dressed stone. This innovation revolutionised quarrying in the process turning Aberdeen into the famous ‘Granite City’.

The stone planer was invented in the 1830s by James Hunter a quarry manager at Leysmill near Arbroath. This particular machine was built by Nicol Esplin, a company founded in Leysmill by a descendant of Hunter. However the company only lasted for 7 years, from 1906 to 1913.

Large Radial Drill

This big Tullis drilling machine was used at Thomas Hudson and Companys Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

This type of machine is called a radial drill because it can rotate around its centre column. This is a very versatile tool because the drill and be moved along the horizontal arm and the arm itself can be moved up and down as well as rotating around the centre column.

This photograph shows the drill inside the Sheepford Boiler Works. Above it you can see a small crane attached to a pillar. Items would be lifted onto the table of the drill using a larger overhead crane that spanned the factory roof.

Glenfield and Kennedy Valve

This large Scottish-built gate valve was used to control the flow of water.

Historical Monuments of Scotland; SC682074.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Glenfield and Kennedy of Kilmarnock specialised in building valves and pumps. They were founded in 1852 and grew to be the leading British manufacturer of valves.

One of Glenfield’s biggest projects in the 1800s was supplying huge gate valves for the Loch Katrine project to supply water from the Loch to Glasgow. The pipeline was opened in 1859.

Vertical Boiler

This boiler design is called a ‘vertical cross-tube boiler'. Pipes criss-cross the inside of the boiler. These pipes held the water to be turned into steam by the heat of the fire inside the stokehole. This is different to a Lancashire

boiler where the fire was inside the tubes and the water inside the shell of the boiler.

This particular boiler was used at Aberdeen Gasworks. It provided steam to power steam engines, mostly pumps. These pumps forced the dirty coal gas from the coke ovens of the gasworks through a series of tanks to clean it for use in homes and businesses and for street lighting.

16 Inch Reed Lathe

By the 1890s it was becoming common to find American machine tools in Scottish engineering works. This example was built by F E Reed and Company of Worcester, Massachusetts who built machine tools of the very highest quality.

This lathe was used in Greenock, first by the Scott Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and then after the Second World War at Gardners Brass Foundry.

Radial Drill

This machine is called a radial drill because it can rotate around its centre column. This is a very versatile tool because the drill and be moved along the horizontal arm and the arm itself can be moved up and down as well as rotating around the centre column.

This particular machine was used in the engineering workshop at Kingshill Colliery, Lanarkshire. It is missing its gearbox, which was bolted to the rear of the table.

There are two larger radial drills on display in the Engineering Pavilion at Summerlee.

Planing Machine

Smith and Coventry planer on display at Summerlee Museum

For more than a century the planing machine was an important tool in the engineers armoury.

This machine was used to make flat surfaces in metal. The cutting tool stayed still while the piece to be cut was clamped to the flat table below, which moved back and forth on rollers.

The table moved slowly on the cutting stroke but the return stroke would be twice as fast to save time. The cutting tool was quite narrow but could be moved gradually sideways to shape wider surfaces.

This particular machine came to the museum from the Fulwood Foundry in Hamilton but is thought to have previously been used at the marine engineering firm of Dunsmure and Jackson, Govan.

Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

This photograph shows similar planing machines at work at the Tullis factory in Clydebank.

You can see the blur of the moving table on the centre machine.

AUDIO: Daniel Mackay describes this machine

Long Gap-Bed Lathe

This lathe by the famous Scottish firm of John Lang and Sons is almost 7 metres long. It was built around 1900.

A gap-bed lathe has part of the bed of the lathe cut away so that it can shape larger workpieces than usual without the lathe itself getting in the way.

A long lathe would be used for shaping long components such as drive shafts and connecting rods for steam engines. This particular lathe is believed to have been used in a textile mill in the Scottish Borders.

Langs of Johnstone were famous throughout the world for their machine tools for almost a century.

Back-Geared Screw Cutting Lathe

This lathe by Langs of Johnstone was used at Dumfin Sawmill at Glenfruin, near Loch Lomond.

A back-gear slows the speed of the lathe in relation to the speed of the belt that drives it. Reducing the speed increases the power so that the lathe can make deeper cuts.

The stepped cone allows the operator to vary the speed of the lathe by moving the drive belt to different steps on the cone. A cone of the same size, but reversed, is attached the line shaft that drives the belt.

Dumfin sawmill was leased by the Taylor family for about a century until 2012.

The mill was powered by water until 1957. The hub of the main waterwheel is on display at Summerlee near the colliery engine house where its construction can be compared to that of the flywheel of the 1810 Newcomen engine.

This engraving from an engineering manual shows the names of the different parts of a typical screw-cutting engineering lathe. Click on it to enlarge.

Generator

This generator was used to make electricity on board a Second World War submarine recovery barge.

The tall part is a small steam engine that powers two dynamos at the same time. The dynamos turn the movement from the engine into electricity.

The dynamos were built by the Sunderland Forge Engineering Company.

We know very little about the barge on which this generator was used - can you tell us any more?

Gear Hobbing Machine

This American machine is designed to cut the teeth of gear wheels.

The cutting tool that you can see is called a ‘hob’. The gear wheel into which the teeth are to be cut is fitted onto the spindle in the middle of the turntable in front of the hob.

The machine was used in the Coatbridge works of Anderson Brothers from the 1930s. One of the engineers there, Jimmy Houston, used this machine to build the miniature traction engine ‘Tigger’ which is now at Summerlee

This illustration from an engineering manual shows a similar machine cutting the teeth of a bevelled gear wheel. You can see that the hob of the machine is angled to match the angle of the teeth it is cutting.

Bradson Drilling Machine

This Bradson drill came to Summerlee Museum from Tambowie Smithy near Milngavie.

Originally powered by a drive belt from an overhead line shaft, the drill has been fitted with its own electric motor at some later stage. The motor has not been geared down so the drill bit would have run faster than needed.

The village smithy traditionally carried out a wide range of work and not just shoe-ing horses. With the arrival of the motor car many blacksmiths became country garages.

Curling Stone Machines

These unique machines were used to make curling stones at the factory of Andrew Kay of Mauchline.

Both were built by Andrew Barclay and Sons of Kilmarnock to designs supplied by James Wylie of Kays. Barclays were a well-known engineering firm and locomotive builder - they made one of the locos you can see in the colliery at Summerlee Museum.

Curling is thought to have originated in medieval Scotland and has strong connections with North Lanarkshire. In fact the earliest purpose-built curling pond is at Colzium House near Cumbernauld and Kilsyth Curling Club is the world’s earliest.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

The granite for curling stones was traditionally quarried from Ailsa Craig and today the running surfaces of the stones continue to be made from the stone. Kays have exclusive rights to the stone from Ailsa Craig: it was last quarried in 2002, giving a large enough supply to last until at least 2020.

Boiler Shell Machine

This machine was used to turn and trim boiler shell plates in the Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

After being shaped in the plate bending rolls the curved boiler plate was clamped onto the rotating table of this machine and turned against a static cutting tool.

The machine is a vertical lathe – just imagine a typical engineering lathe stood on end, the principle is exactly the same.

This drawing of a Hudson Patent Water Tube Boiler is from the Thomas Hudson and Company Archive which is held at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre, Motherwell.

Click on the image to see it at a larger size.