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| Maybe OT.... Not exactly an engine... but.... |
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| John Hill:
My family worked at the other end of the textile chain (wool not cotton) and one of my uncles had a sheep shearing shed where the machinery had been powered by a water wheel. I remember the remains of the wheel which was about 8 feet in diameter and about 4 feet wide, it was the overshot type fed by a small steam on his farm. At some earlier time the wheel had fallen into disuse (unreliable water supply is the most likely explanation) and was replaced by a portable steam engine borrowed from a neighbour until a Blackstone oil engine arrived. The Blackstone did service for about 50 years then the big end collapsed and the engine was scrapped, I remember them loading chunks onto a truck to be taken away. That would have been about 1955. A Lanz Bulldog drove the shed for a couple of seasons then everything was converted to electric. The machinery in the shed was 7 shearing positions and a capstan that was used to stack the 350lb wool bales. |
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