Ashton Is Stranger Than Fiction – Henry Ford’s Engine
Newcomen Atmospheric Engine Engineering History
This Newcomen atmospheric steam engine was built in the mid-eighteenth century to pump water from the coal mines 61 metres below the surface. A piece of engineering history that was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. It was the first steam-powered engine with a practical use, harnessing mechanical energy.
The theory was simple, steam was condensed in a cylinder which created a vacuum which in turn allowed atmospheric pressure to operate a piston. The action then operated a mechanical pump which drew water from the mine below. Hundreds of Newcomen atmospheric engines were constructed in the 18th century and were widely used across the United Kingdom and Europe to pump water from many types of mines.
Newcomen’s engine design was greatly improved by the great James Watt who is seen by many as the father of the industrial revolution. Leaving the also great Thomas Newcomen as a lesser-known figure in the history of the steam engine. But this blog will explore the fact that a chunk of Ashton-under-Lyne’s history now resides in a museum in the United States; because a wealthy influential North American took a shine to it.
In this case, Ashton is stranger than fiction as the local people in return for a footbridge across a river gave away their heritage. It is unfortunate that a brash American entrepreneur was given this opportunity in the first place; even though this took place ninety years ago.
Newcomen Atmospheric Engine Bardsley Colliery
The following paragraphs trace the history of the Fairbottom Bobs Newcomen atmospheric engine. It was installed around 1760 to pump water from the coal mine adjacent to the River Medlock known as Bardsley Colliery, as previously stated the mines were 61 metres deep (200 feet).
The coal seams could not be worked without the water being removed from the mines as was the case with many local collieries, including what became the nearby Lordsfield Colliery. The area around the engine was known as Fairbottom, and the name Fairbottom Bobs came from the bobbing action of the engine itself.
The Fairbottom Bobs steam engine was in use for 74 years before it was moth-balled in 1834, the reason behind this is not recorded anywhere I have come across so far. Many years later Newcomen atmospheric engines were converted to the James Watt design from 1776, which meant the majority of the original Newcomen steam engines were lost to history.
This particular engine though remained in position for another 95 years until it caught the attention of Henry Ford and was transported across the Atlantic to the United States. Many images throughout the history of the Fairbottom Bobs engine show that it was a local curiosity. For many years, photographs being taken by, we have to assume wealthier visitors at the time.
Newcomen Atmospheric Engine 1880
One of these visitors was the Great Grandfather of the man who inspired me to write this blog piece, John Hargreaves visited Fairbottom Bobs in 1880. A man who took part in the industrial Revolution locally being the Chairman of John Hargreaves paper in Stalybridge founded in 1874, a business that still exists today in 2019. You can only marvel at the local connection, this same business used and still uses steam in a completely different way to the Newcomen atmospheric engine. This maker of corrugated board has original equipment that predates the removal of the Newcomen Engine in 1929.
It is why this story should capture the imagination of the people of Ashton under Lyne and Tameside as a whole. We have a piece of history which was part of the beginning of the expansion of all Tameside’s towns, thousands of miles away in a Michigan Museum. For the people of Michigan, this is just a curiosity that captured the imagination of one of their industrialists. For the people of Ashton-under-Lyne, it is a vital part of local history that most will never see in the flesh. So in truth, it should be returned to if not its original home, at least to a museum that is accessible to the local population.
Newcomen Atmospheric Engine Our Lost History
As we modernise our environment, parts of our history are lost to the generations now and in the future. This area has a history to be proud of, our great-grandparents and those before them shaped the future we share. History comes in many guises, it surrounds us without many even realising it.
Our blogs here at Besseges (Valves, Tubes & Fittings) Ltd and ValvesTubesFittings.com talk about the history of our community. We do it primarily to improve our coverage across the World Wide Web, but by creating these conversations we contribute to the overall conversation about the positives in our local community.
Our final words for this blog are that we should make some noise about the Newcomen atmospheric steam engine which is a piece of the history of Ashton-under-Lyne. If we can’t have the engine returned to its home in Ashton-under-Lyne, the least we could do is have a replica of the Fairbottom Bobs engine built here in Tameside.
Maybe it would be a fitting tribute to the past if a new generation of engineers built the engine within our local college community. The young people attending our local colleges could create history themselves by taking this on, if this does interest you please get in touch. The image in this paragraph is believed Henry Ford and others posing in front of the Fairbottom Bobs engine in the 1920s.
Another Ashton Is Stranger Than Fiction Blog
We hope you enjoyed this new addition to the Ashton Is Stranger Than Fiction series. Other titles in this particular set of blogs are:
We must take the time as always to thank the Tameside Image Archive for their support with our blogs. Without the images they provide our blogs would be less for it, the archive is a valued and important local resource.
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