Engine cylinder boring machine

George Richards & Co of Broadheath, Manchester built this machine in 1913. 1913, the eve of the end of civilisation as they knew it, and the late evening of the era of large reciprocating steam engines.

The machine was specifically built for machining cylinders for Corliss-type engines of the XXL size. The main boring spindle was 10 inches diameter, and the headstock could also take a facing head for machining up to 8 ft diameter. The other spindles, at 90 degrees to the main axis 2nd photo), were of 4½ inches diameter, and these were used to machine the Corliss valve housings.

Cylinder boring machine

Wow! what a machine, makes my little Kwik Way boring bar look mighty puny also looks kinda dangerous (no guards on all the exposed gear trains

John C

the light in that building must of been wonderful to work by. Great shots, if you have ever tried to photograph a large machine in a large space you can appreciate the difficulties. I would guess a large format camera [which was the only professional equipment anyways] and a long exposure on an overcast day.

Light shed

British factories of that era tended to have a lot of natural light. Just as well, given the poor artifical light that was available then. Later factories often had a saw-tooth roof profile, with opaque sloping sections and glazed vertical portions ideally facing north, to avoid direct sunlight streaming in). In the ongoing ‘Galloways’ thread I mentioned that when Charles Porter returned to the US to set up his engine works, he wanted to model it on Smith & Coventry’s Salford machine tool works as far as possible. However, he couldn’t adopt the all-glazed roof because of the snow burden (precipitation in Salford being frequent, but rarely white and fluffy).

A 1913 description of Richards’ works shows that it was designed as a whole unit rather than growing piecemeal. Clearly someone put a lot of capital into it, and that someone was the Tilghman brothers, who’d come from Pennsylvania to set up shop making sandblasting equipment, first in London, then Sheffield, before moving to Broadheath and taking a dominant shareholding in the Richards Co. As far as I can make out, the Tilghman compressors were made in the Richards factory.

Although Richards went on to produce a wide range of machine tools, they’d had to equip the new works with machines mostly made by others. The 1913 description and plan show that the main shop was basically square, apart from a few bits that stuck out, one to accommodate the railway line and loading bay, another for the power plant and works compressors. The toilets and washrooms were also appendages, perhaps to ensure that they would be swept by an icy blast in winter, to discourage malingerers.

The building was divided into nine bays, and all these were served by a 2’ 6” gauge railway track, which also went out into the yard and thence to the blacksmith’s shop, which (wisely) was kept separate. This shop had two pneumatic hammers, a 15 cwt one by Pilkington and a 7 cwt one by B & S Massey, both Manchester firms (1 cwt = 112 lbs, 20 cwt = 1 UK ton). A separate foundry would be added later.

The shop had 42 cranes, the larger ones all being made locally, by Joseph Adamson of Hyde, Berry of Swinton, and Vaughan of Openshaw.

Planers were made by Hulse of Salford and Stirk of Halifax.
Horizontal borers by Hulse and Richards.
33” swing x 20 ft Lang lathe with variable speed drive.
Holroyd thread milling machine for screws up to 6” dia x 12 ft long.
Jones & Shipman tool & cutter grinder.
12” x 8ft cylindrical grinder made by Charles Churchill, just down the road.
Wallwork gear hobber, capacity 10 ft dia.
Various lathes by Ryder (Bolton), Darling & Sellers, Richards.
Radial drills from Swift (Halifax) and Selson.
Various vertical boring mills and milling machines by Richards.

Awesome Tools

Very impressive! I want one. I'd like to see the machines that manufactured those machines!
Les

Clickable thumbnails.…


Above: Cylinder boring and facing machine, for engine cylinders up to 8 ft diameter.


Above: For boring the cylinders and crankshaft bearing housings on horizontal engines.

Both machines made by John Hetherington & Sons, Ltd., Manchester.

For pictures of the Hetherington's works buildings ‘then and now’ see post #33 of the ‘Galloways’ thread:-
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/showthread.php?t=146469&page=2

Asquith, I like this thread on the big Richards cylinder boring machine, most impressive item of plant, Type of thing "Once gone- Gone for ever" Should this country & the western world, ever find themselves with their backs to the wall, and having to set up some heavy manufacturing capacity again, I wonder where they will get a facility to build its like again, And even more importantly the skill base to carry through such a project, not to mention the skill and lots of little tricks, on operating such a beast!, Frequently, i feel that i would like to ask todays fanancial gurus to ponder on such points, before they scuttle off, as the financial system could easily get worse.
However about 20 odd years ago up in this neck of the woods, an even larger and more elegant pair of heavy boring mills were scrapped, you would have really liked the bigger one of the pair of them, The biggest of them was one you were named after, a big travelling column Asquith, and its huge travelling saddle, which held the spindle, could as well as being traversed up & down the column , also could be angled to do horizontal drilling at about 30degrees, each side of the horizontal axis, The spindle also had an auxiliary smaller internal spindle capable of higher speed drilling (small drills, only up to about four morse taper!) The big spindle could face mill large flat surfaces as well,
Upon seeing this machine once with her spindle driving a self acting bar, boring out a big stern frame was something not easily forgotten, Along with her sister horizontal ,boring ,milling & drilling machine, a machine of a more powerful construction, a big Glasgow built Harvey, Both machines having an operators platform on the big saddle, in the case of the Harvey, where the machine man stood,to his right ,Near his feet, about two feet away, was a set of evil looking bevel gears, ,Todays " Health & Safety boys," would have kittens, Both machines were fitted with strategically placed floor plates, to expeditiously hold big castings & forgings for boring out & milling.
Both these machines were in the works of the Dennystown Forge Co at the Dalreoch area of the town of Dumbarton, Tribuatory of the Clyde, World renowned for its shipyard of the late firm of William Denny & Co Ltd. This was the yard who built the famous clipper ship Cutty Sark, whose build had been started on the same site, by another firm called Scott & Linton, who went burst early on in the build of that most important vessel, Dennys also pioneered the first manned helicopter trial with a successful outcome, just before the first world war (which put paid to its development) By all accounts it was a pretty primitive craft.
However back to the Dennystown Forge Co, This firm had a most impressive forge department with massive hydraulic presses, built by Davy Brothers of Sheffield, and also some big conventional steam hammers As an aside to my post, many years ago, an old draughtsman employed, previously at Dennystown, told me the following tale, Many years ago, wager had been placed with the machine shop of William Beardmores to be carried out on the same day, (most unofficial-- unknown to the management!) In this bet, the prize was a considerable amount of draught beer for the winners, It consisted of which turning shop, could get the longest cut off a big stern shaft without breaking it, adjudicators of an independant & fair minded stature were in both works, in telephonic communication, And everyboy had a cleat to grab the cutting as it spiralled of the lathe, it was being delicately snaked out on the machine shop floor, most gently,carefully measured, excitement was mounting Dennystown were winning, When horrors! a clown of a labourer ran over it with a wheelbarrow Beardmores won the beer, Wonder what happened to him?
Speaking of horizontal boring work about two months ago, i was in a place of which could nowadays, be called an endangered species, Yes you have got it in one, Dear readers, an engineering shop!, and the director of that firm, was having a discussion with me on horizontal boring, And he said to me, Were you ever in the Paisley, Renfrewshire works of Mckie & Baxter, Marine engineers,? Answer affirmative, Did you ever see the ancient cylinder boring mill? Ans, Yes an old Harvey, And two also by John Lang & Co, The man said i was in that works, just before its demise in 1970/ish, and one of their equally old turners, was boring out a long stern tube, and to see what was happening up the bore, he was using a candle held on a long wire, to poke up the bore & see his results, WE both imediately came to the same conclusion, the old boy was using a candle flame for light, as it does not throw as many shadows, as electric light would in the confined space, What did i say earlier on, about ancient tricks of the trade Now forgotten in todays high tech world !

Can you imagin one of us using a candle in the shop today to shine light down in the bore of a part today! Let see, would OSHA or the fire marshel show up first?

It's almost like using chaulk in the last passes of cutting a thread. I still havent figured that one out.

Ken

Not necessarily taking the opposite view from Cutting Oil Mac, I can testify that there are those sort of tools - and skills - being used in this world.

In 1986 I was involved with relining 24 inch butterfly valves for Seabrook Station here in Cow Hampshire. These valves had never been used beyond initial testing but were already tearing their rubber liners out because United Engineers of Philadelphia had designed them for "throttling" service, something a butterfly valve is not well adapted for.

The company that eventually ended up with the contract to line these was Raynor, Inc. a family owned company that was named for Ray Normandin who was the father. Four sons ran the four divisions including one division which did high level security work for our esteemed government, and was hardened against nuclear attack into the South Dakota hills where it was located.

My work was at their Portmouth, Cow Hampshire plant which was a stone's throw from Seabrook. While there, we were cautioned against getting near some of the other government work that was underway.

One of these was the nosecone of a Trident nuclear submarine. It was placed pointing vertically on a vertical boring mill of heroic proportions. If I remember correctly, the table on this mill was 30 plus feet in diameter and it could take an object upwards of 40 feet high. The faceplate was level with the floor we were standing on. I watched in rapt fascination as the nosecone turned at about two revolutions per minute and the single point cutting tool (yes!) took off chips that hit the ground with a "dwang" sort of like car springs hitting the concrete.

"If you value your life, don't approach any closer or make any sudden movements," the Normandin son told me as we both watched. He then pointed to the rafters where there was an armored crow's nest which contained a single soldier with a most serious machine gun cradled in his arms. As the Normandin son waved to him, the gunman waved back and gave the "thumbs up" sign.

I was pleased to watch at a distance.

Best,
Joe in NH

Hello Joe,

Can you recall the make of the big verical boring mill? Sounded a real whopper, About 20 years ago, a friend of mine who owned an engineering plant which did machine tool repairs, and required an extra pair of hands urgentlyn asked me to help him repair a very large vertical boring mill, in the works of Cameron Iron Works at Livingston near Edinburgh, It was suffering from a seized table, I think someone on the Monday morning, before manually giving her a squirt of oil, started her up, (sounded like a monday hangover job) That was fun getting her unstuck, however got everything going O.K. I think it might have been built by Gray? Dont think it was a Bullard, Wish i could remember, all i remember it was American and a fine heavily built machine.
About 15 years ago, The Motherwell Bridge & Engineering Co. sold off a huge George Richards boring mill, also of humungus proportions, This machine was also used for machining nose cones for the British nuclear fleet, never saw her on that task, but saw her on other work, I thought with her big floor level table turning, she was quite a record player! could have tried her playing my Abba records, with a diamond scriber, LOL Now in the last two years the whole factory has been turned into the most dismall housing development imaginable, Except for one small unit sitting in glorious isolation carrying out aero space work.

I’ll return to Mac and Joe’s observations presently, but first, by a remarkable coincidence I saw this marvellous model of a STEAM-DRIVEN cylinder boring machine today (actually driven by air at the moment).

I had a bit of downtime at work, and by happy coincidence the Bristol Model Engineering exhibition was on nearby.

It’s a 1/12th scale model of a machine made by Joshua Buckton of Leeds, Yorkshire, in the late 19th century. Constructed by Mr Maurice Turnbull, who made all the patterns and castings himself, and had to use his ingenuity to make up for lack of detailed information. He was an enthusiastic and inspirational gent.

I wish I’d had more time to talk to him and to study the model.



The engine was running when I took this photo. Note the choice of four governor drive speeds on the engine.

Clickable thumbnails:-





The model is unfinished, and will have star wheels fitted to the leadscrews of the facing heads.

Note the square thread on the slender main leadscrew. This provides the feed for the boring head.

Mr Turnbull is currently making three other models of Victorian machine tools.

Joshua Buckton & Co were prominent makers of heavy machine tools, until knocked out by the slump of the 1920s. They were taken over by Craven Bros of Manchester.

Joe mentioned a 30 ft+ diameter vertical boring mill that could accommodate a 40 ft high component. I worked in a place with a 42 ft Craven, but from memory I don’t think it could take anything taller than about 15 ft (although I think the bridge was set back from the centre, in which case it could have accommodated objects of small diameter, up to crane height!).

Lots of things to mull over in Mac’s posts - you don’t find swarf-length record attempts in the old text books! As for the use of candles, it clears up something I read in an old magazine the other day. It was a 1904 article about a demonstration of the new cushioning device on a large Smith & Coventry planer. ‘…we saw half a shop candle stood up on end on the table of a machine at work in Smith & Coventry’s shops, and although it rocked slightly at each reverse it did not fall’. ‘Shop candle’? I wondered.

When I worked in a steelworks rolling mill, the roll setters used the flame of a kettle-type oil lamp behind the rolls when aligning the top and bottom rolls.

Mac mentioned a travelling column Asquith borer with a tilting head. Here’s one (or was it sabotage - perhaps the bloke on top loosened something to scare his boss ;-) ):-



Finally, a superb shot in John Brown’s Clydebank works:-

http://www.theclydebankstory.com/imageview.php?inum=TCSA00136

Source:-
http://www.theclydebankstory.com/story_TCSC03.php?PHPSESSID=59b086414c3c0f7a9f81d761681ab609

Not so boring machines

Asquith, Mac, Joe & Co.,
Thankyou greatly for your posts on this subject. Whilst archives may hold copies of the Engineer and Engineering etc for future generations to consult (well at least the enlightened ones who don't consider science & technology irrelevant) the actual experiences & anecdotes of skilled engineers go largely unrecorded. This is where Practical Machinist triumphs. I particularly enjoyed reading about the bespoke model Buckton machine - truly an inspiration in particular because actual surviving cylinder boring machines are so thin on the ground.
I rescued a 1914 Parkinson horizontal machine many years ago which later found its way into the graveyard of a steam museum where recently a historic triple expansion 750 hp mill engine was destroyed.The Parkinson was itself under threat of a passage to China in yard-cube pieces until I alerted a friend of mine to its likely fate. He had previously rehomed a lovely little Asquith planer I recued from Bristol.
My late friend Frank Woodall was a model engineer extraordinaire and specialised in mining and quarrying machinery. Like the great George Watkins he had used his holidays to visit numerous sites both in this country and Europe to study and record surviving machines and (here's the link to the Buckton) concentrated on modelling disappeared items. His book *Steam engines & Waterwheels* published originally by Moorland would be of interest to many readers.

Millwright,

Frank Woodall's book Steam Engines and Waterwheels is one of my favourite books. Not because it is large and glossy and features similar machinery, but because I like to see old machinery in its working days, and also because Mr Woodall has photographed machinery I have not seen elsewhere. Also he describes what the machinery was doing, and gives some insight into what was going on. I think I would rather have seen one of those old water wheels working its flat rods, angle bobs and balance weights amidst an industrial landscape more than the whole Science Museum. However, I don't look in his book, or the books of George Watkins too often, they are show machinery and times gone forever.

Interesting to hear that you knew Frank Woodall. I have just read the brief detail about him on the cover of his book, I wonder if he wrote other articles about old machinery, e.g. machine tools, in Model Engineer? I read that he worked for engine manufacturers and a machine tool company, I wonder if you have any stories or details? And I am sorry to hear that he has passed away, I see that he was born in 1912.

Asquith,

The John Brown photo is excellent! How did you find it though? I can't find it working from the 'source' you give.

Millwright,

I have Frank Woodall’s book, too. It came from the collection of my late uncle, used to work at Vulcan Foundry, and I greatly regret not gleaning more information from him.

The brief biography in the back of Frank Woodall’s book says he worked for a firm who made oil and gas engines, and then for a machine tool firm. Do you know who they were?

Was the Parkinson company the same one who made the Parkson milling and gear cutting machines?

Peter,

Water wheels working rods can still be seen at the Wheal Martyn clay mine in Cornwall, although it’s now a museum rather than an industrial site (although if you climb the hill (passing all the young couch potatoes, puffing and panting) you can watch the machines in the quarry below).

For more John Brown pictures, enter John Brown in the Quick Search box. This takes you to a page of photos. There’s also provision to jump to the next page (5 pages for John Brown). See also Beardmore.

Here’s a stunning shipyard photo that I’ve posted in the past:-
http://www.theclydebankstory.com/im...35&PHPSESSID=59b086414c3c0f7a9f81d761681ab609

Peter S,
Frank was one of the most knowledgeable,experienced yet unassuming engineers I have had the pleasure of knowing. He worked at Parkinson's of Shipley (where he met his wife) and John Robson's Ive st.engine works in the same town. His reputation preceded him and I first came across him in the local Industrial Museum,carefully scrutinising the 36hp Robson oil engine I had set up to drive the machine tool display. Quite a character, he slowly walked around the exhibits with hands behind his back and asked me a question carefully worded no doubt to check me out. I answered correctly and from then on we became friends - Frank had no time for the charlatan or yes men found in such institutions.
Praise from the likes of Frank, George Watkins and Frank Wightman was an accolade
(for the work the fitters and millwrights who had created the working displays) meant much more than from anywhere else.
The Woodall workshop was in his attic - small machine tools turning out exquisite models. Several of them are on display in the Earby mining museum, North Yorkshire.

Perfect Vises & mysterious Twinks

Asquith,
Parkinsons did indeed make gear planers - Their Canal works in Shipley in 1950 were advertising the brands * Sunderland * and * Perfect * - the latter referring to their bench vices which from the 1912 Mechanical World yearbook proclaimed were for * live men * and that they had made for the previous 28 years and still supreme.
Their branch works were at Fleece St. Keighley - a good name for Yorkshire .
In the back of my mind I associate Parkinson with the *Twink* centre lathe - however a quick Google search doesn't bring up anything repeatable. Anyone here got one ?

i have only just read this thread. i had two parkinson "twink"lathes at one time.i sold one15 yrs ago(it may well survive) the other i regrettably scrapped with some other machines,my options to keep them at the time had run out. somewhere i think i may have a photo of a twink but it will take a long while to find it