model of a high pressure beam engine, made by William Hooper, a 'hammerman' at the Copperhouse foundry, awarded a prize at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society's annual exhibition at Falmouth, 1838.
This fine model may have represented an engine which Hooper saw at the Copperhouse Foundry, but the unsual combination of a governor and reversing gear suggests that he built it based on parts of different engines he had seen, amalgamated together into the finished model. This is an early and intrguing example of model engineering carried out as a hobby, as opposed to being part of professional engineering practice.
Details
- Category:
- Motive Power
- Object Number:
- 1965-470/1
- Materials:
- brass (copper, zinc alloy), complete?, copper (metal), iron, mahogany (wood), metal (unknown), steel (metal) and wood (unidentified)
- Measurements:
-
overall: 575 x 834 x 394 mm
overall weight:
- type:
- models
- credit:
- Dingle, P.
