The Garlogie Beam Engine is a steam powered

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead Beam (structure), beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used b ...

, built in 1833, that once powered a woollen mill at

Garlogie Garlogie () is a roadside hamlet in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was, during the 19th century, the site of a textile milling settlement using water from Loch of Skene. The mill houses a beam engine and 1923 hydropower tubine.

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

. It is a rare survivor of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

and the oldest

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

of any kind still in its original location in Scotland. It contains what is believed to be the oldest

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

engine beam in the world, dating from 1805.

History

In 1799, Thomas Black built a three-story wool-spinning mill at Garlogie, west of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

on the site of an earlier waulk mill. Both were powered by

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous b ...

s fed from the

Leuchar Burn Leuchar Burn is a stream that rises in the Loch of Skene, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland Initially near the headwaters Leuchar Burn flows in a southerly course;United Kingdom Ordnance Survey Map, Landranger 45, Stonehaven & Banchory, 1:50,000 scal ...

. Following bankruptcy in 1832, the mill was bought by Alexander Hadden, who already had a large mill at The Green in

. To provide power when water levels were low, Haddens installed a beam engine in 1833. A

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

plant, added in the 1840s, provided light in the mill, replacing open flames. The engine cylinder was replaced in 1870 and a Hercules turbine installed in , replacing the 1827 water wheel. Cheaper fabric imports forced Garlogie Mill to close in 1904. Haddens sold the mill machinery at public auction in July 1905. They kept the mill buildings in good condition, hoping to attract a buyer. Eventually, in 1918,

Lord Cowdray Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1917 for the industrialist Weetman Pearson, 1st Baron Cowdray, head of the Pearson conglomerate. He had already been creat ...

, owner of the

Skene Skene may refer to: * Skene, Aberdeenshire, a community in North East Scotland, United Kingdom * Skene, Mississippi, an unincorporated community in Mississippi, United States * Skene, Sweden, a village now part of Kinna, Sweden * Skene (automobil ...

estates, purchased the mill. He utilised the mill water supply to generate electric power for

Dunecht House Dunecht House is a stately home on the Dunecht estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The house is protected as a category A listed building, and the grounds are included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national ...

. Most of the other buildings were demolished in 1934. The south wing was converted into a village hall in 1931. The surviving engine house is Category A-listed. Dunecht Estates gifted the remains of the mill site to the council in 1993. Gordon District Council and North-East Scotland Museums Service ran the site as a Museum of Power in the 1990s.

Beam Engine

The engine was built in 1833, using parts, including the beam, from a

Boulton and Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engl ...

engine supplied to Hadden's Aberdeen factory in 1805. The engine has a single vertical cylinder with an 18-inch bore. Steam acts on both sides of the piston and is controlled by a slide valve assembly on the side of the cylinder. The valve design is inefficient as steam is cut off late in the piston travel. The 16 ft 6in beam is supported by a cast iron column under its pivot and by substantial iron girders built into the walls of the engine house. The diameter cast iron

flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device that uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy, a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, a ...

has a barring plate set into the wall behind. A parallel linkage on the beam allows the piston rod to move in a straight line. A separate condenser and air pump improved the efficiency over earlier cylinders by reducing heat loss from the cylinder. Both developments were introduced to engines by

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

Hydro-power turbine

In the 1920s,

had a hydro-power turbine plant built on the site. He installed a second dam on the Leuchar Burn with a concrete

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is of Scots origin, and was inherited from the earlier technology of mill pond ...

along the course of the previous

mill lade A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...

to a large

surge tank Surge means a sudden transient rush or flood, and may refer to: Science * Storm surge, the onshore flow of water associated with a low-pressure weather system * Surge (glacier), a short-lived event where a glacier can move up to velocities 100 t ...

. The 1923 72 kW

Escher Wyss Escher Wyss is a quarter in the district 5 of Zürich, centered on the Escher-Wyss-Platz square. Escher Wyss was formerly a part of Aussersihl municipality, which was incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The quarter has a population of 2,727 dis ...

plant supplied electricity to

and Estate. It ran until the mid-1960s.

Garlogie Beam Engine Trust

The Garlogie Beam Engine Trust was formed in 2019 and established a 99-year lease with Aberdeenshire Council from July 2023. It has held public open days throughout the summer of 2024. Work has started to restore the beam engine and water turbine. The trust's vision is for the site to become a working museum, telling the story of the mill and providing educational opportunities.

Footnotes

External links

Garlogie Beam Engine
{{coord, 57.139878, -2.3615573, type:landmark_region:GB-STS, display=title Preserved beam engines Tourist attractions in Aberdeenshire