Curious Machines: Beautiful Machinery - Double Cylinder Steam Engine (1797)

Double cylinder engine produced for a mill in Nottinghamshire, 1797.

Many Birmingham industrialists fought for their decorative manufactured goods to be seen within the bracket of 'arts' and they were often called the 'useful arts'. The machinery produced in the town, though, had a beauty of its own, especially in the way it was drawn and depicted in the eighteenth century style of depiction. 

These engine plans were produced by Boulton & Watt at the Soho manufactory near Birmingham. They have been digitised by Digital Handsworth and placed online here, with additional information.

Engine for Henry Whately, gun manufacturer, Smethwick. 1796.

Six horse power crank engine for the Cockshead Colliery in Staffs. 1793.

Alteration to an engine by Boulton & Watt. 1776-7.

Pumping engine from the Paris Water Works, 1779.

James Watt's Workshop

A short video by History West Midlands, taking us inside the workshop of James Watt, which existed at Watt's home, Heathfield Hall, in the late eighteenth-century. The workshop is now reconstructed at the Science Museum in London.