Item 1999_003_A_001 - Beam Engine

1

1851: Originally installed at a pumping station at Ely Wells, Cardiff
c1882: Taken out of service
c1882-1888: Moved and installed at Llanishen Reservoir, Cardiff
1921: Taken out of service
1932: Cardiff Water Works Committee agreed to preserve the Engine for public display. This didn't happen for many years.
1977: Placed on public display at the Welsh Industrial and Maritme Museum (WIMM) in Cardiff Bay
1998: Moved and stored at the Welsh Water Broomy Hill site, Hereford

1999 - On long term loan from National Museum of Wales to the Waterworks Museum - Hereford.
2024 - Ownership transferred from Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales to Waterworks Museum - Hereford.

Installed originally at a pumping station at Ely Wells, Cardiff in 1851 to pump clean drinking water for the citizens of Cardiff. A water pumping station was erected after polluted water from the River Taff had killed one in fifty of the population of Cardiff in an outbreak of cholera in 1850. Taken out of service in c1882 and subsequently moved to Llanishen Reservoir in Cardiff where it worked until 1921rem

• English

Beam pumping engine and twin ram pump.
Built to a Simpson design specifically developed for waterworks use.
Power: 15.2 kw (20HP); Efficiency < 10%; Flywheel 3.7 metres (12ft) diameter; plus a Single Ram Pump and a Pressure Vessel.
Now operates by the use of an electric motor.
This engine is identical to the Beam Engine built by Simpson's of Pimlico that operated in this Bay at the museum from 1862 until it was scrapped in the 1930's.

Bay 05

• English