The Dakeyne hydraulic disc engine was a high-pressure

hydraulic engine A hydraulic motor is a mechanical actuator that converts hydraulic pressure and flow into torque and angular displacement (rotation). The hydraulic motor is the rotary counterpart of the hydraulic cylinder as a linear actuator. Most broadly, ...

built in the 19th century to power a

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

mill in Ladygrove,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

In the 1820s mill owners Edward and James Dakeyne designed and constructed a disc engine known locally as "The Romping Lion" to make use of the high-pressure water available near their mill. The Dakeyne brothers had previously invented "The Equalinium", a machine for the preparation of flax for spinning, and their father Daniel Dakeyne (1733–1819) was granted a patent for this device in 1794. It is often said that Edward and James did not take out the patent themselves because they were minors at the time, but in fact they were 23 and 21 respectively. Little is known of their engine other than from the somewhat unclear description accompanying the patent, which was granted in 1830. Its main castings were made at the Morley Park foundry near

Heage Heage is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated midway between Belper and Ripley in the Amber Valley district. The village is in the Heage and Ambergate ward, which in the 2011 census had a population of 5,013. Heage is known for its six ...

, and it weighed 7 tons and generated 35 horsepower at a head of 96 feet of water. Stephen Glover, in his gazetteer of Derbyshire, was enthusiastic about the prospects for the disc engine, foreseeing its use in all manner of applications, domestic as well as industrial, not only as a prime mover but also as a pump. He stated that John Dakeyne had also commissioned a disc engine to drive the bellows of an organ in the family's residence, Knabb House. A larger model was constructed to drain lead mines at

Alport Alport is a hamlet in the White Peak area of Derbyshire, England. It lies east of Youlgreave, at the confluence of the River Bradford and the River Lathkill. The oldest house in the hamlet is Monks Hall. There also used to be a pub, which was de ...

near

Youlgreave Youlgreave or Youlgrave is a village and civil parish in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England, on the River Bradford south of Bakewell. The name possibly derives from "yellow grove", the ore mined locally being yellow in colour. The populati ...

and many steam versions were subsequently built by other people. The machine itself is difficult to describe. Frank Nixon, in his book ''The Industrial Archaeology of Derbyshire'' (1969), commented that:

The most striking characteristic of this ingenious machine is perhaps the difficulty experienced by those trying to describe it; the patentees and Stephen Glover only succeeded in producing descriptions of monumental incomprehensibility.

Notes

References

* {{cite web, last=Wigfull , first=Phil , title=The Romping Lion: The story of the Dakeyne Disc Engine , url=http://dakeynediscengine.org/default.aspx , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209191509/http://dakeynediscengine.org/default.aspx , archive-date=February 9, 2012 1820s introductions Engines Industrial archaeology English inventions

History

See also

Notes

References