Beam engine model of vertical single-cylinder engine, made by Samuel Clegg of Manchester, c.1825.

This miniature engine was made by gas engineer Samuel Clegg for his former teacher John Dalton. Clegg was one of Dalton’s students at Manchester Academy when Dalton first arrived in Mancheser in the 1820s. Following his tuition there, Clegg took an apprenticeship at Boulton and Watt’s Soho foundry, where he worked alongside William Murdock, pioneer of gas lighting, and took an interest in gas works himself. At Boulton and Watt, Clegg would have gained experience with steam engines, and this model is typical of a Boulton and Watt beam engine of the era.

Hatton and Flowett speculate that Clegg built this model engine following his apprenticeship at Boulton and Watt, and presented it as a gift to his former teacher Dalton.

It is likely that Dalton used this model in his role at the Manchester Lit and Phil to teach basic mechanics and the industrial applications of heat and gases, including to his most famous student, James Joule.