From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A stationary steam engine, preserved at Tower Bridge in London. This is one of two tandem cross-compound hydraulic pumping engines used to raise and lower the bridge.

Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam motor vehicles, agricultural engines used for ploughing or threshing, and marine engines.

There are different patterns of stationary steam engines

• Beam engine
• Cornish engine
• Table engine
• Horizontal engine
• Vertical engine
• Inclined engine
• High speed engine

They were introduced during the eighteenth century and widely made for the whole of the nineteenth century and most of the first half of the twentieth century, only declining as electricity supply and the internal combustion engine became more widespread.

• Buchanan, R. A., and Watkins, George, The Industrial Archaeology of the Stationary Steam Engine, London, 1976, ISBN 0-7139-0604-9

• Watkins, George, Stationary Steam Engines of Great Britain, Landmark Publishing, various ISBNs

Vol 1, Yorkshire (2000)

Vol 2, Scotland and Northern England (2000)

Vols 3:1, 3:2, Lancashire (2001)

Vol 4, Wales, Cheshire,& Shropshire (2002)

Vol 5, The North Midlands (2002)

Vol 6, The South Midlands (2003)

Vol 7, The South and South West (2003)

Vol 8, Greater London and the South East (2003)

Vol 9, East Anglia & adjacent counties (2004)

Vol 10, Marine Engines (and readers' notes, indexes to the series etc) (2005)

This series reproduces some 1,500 images from the Steam Engine Record made by George Watkins between 1930 and 1980, which is now in the Watkins Collection at English Heritage's National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wilts.

In order of evolution:

• Watt steam engine
• Newcomen steam engine
• Cornish engine
• Winding engine

• Stationary engine
• Steam donkey

• Animated engines - Illustrates a variety of steam engines
• Old Engine House, List of Museums – examples of stationary steam engines preserved in the UK (with pictures and links)