Harvey & Co Oscillating cylinder steam engine

Oscillating cylinder steam engine, by Harvey & Co., Engineers, Hayle Foundry, Hayle, Cornwall, England, 1870

Harvey's of Hayle were a very significant engineering company, being renowned for building water pumping engines for mines and water-works, among much else. As well as giant beam engines, they also made and sold small, self-contained engines like this for use as a power supply in smaller workshops, on temporary work-sites and so on. When it was new, this engine was installed at the workshops of the Campden Hill Water Works in London, which was owned by the Grand Junction Water Works Company. The engine's maker's plates refers to Hayle Foundry Wharf in London's Nine Elms - although the company's engineering works were at Hayle in Cornwall, London was a huge market for their products and they used the site in Nine Elms as a depot from which to support operations locally. The depot was itself only a short distance from Battersea Water Pumping Station, built in 1840, and housing a number of Cornish pumping engines built by Harvey's of Hayle.