Vacuum for an 1878 Beam Engine - 03-12-18
Quirepace were asked recently to specify a suitable vacuum pump to potentially enable an 1878 beam engine to be demonstrated as an active exhibit. Our BVC Exhausters and Blowers specialist, John Barthorpe, calculated the requirement and recommended a suitable BVC ESAM side channel vacuum pump.
Markham Grange Steam Museumย have now installed a BVC “Unijet 500” unit successfully and the “Clapham Beam Engine” which was originally installed to pump water in Bedfordshire, can now be demonstrated working without the technical demands of using live steam. The full story is described in their own news pages from October 2018 here
Using vacuum to operate the engines from our industrial heritage has advantages because as the lead engineer at Markham Grange explained; “it avoidsย all pressurisedย components and test certificate questions, and is not compromised by the condensation issue which is inevitable withย compressed air”
As a Company with our own Industrial Heritage, it is always good to be involved with projects which are a little bit more unusual compared to the normal day to day activities, and we are pleased to support Markham Grange Steam Museum with the very worthy work they are doing in making our industrial heritage accessible.