William McNaught (1813–1881) was a Scottish engineer, from

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, who patented a compound steam engine in 1845. This was a technique of improving the efficiency of a standard simple Boulton & Watt

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 ...

. The engine was compounded by adding a high-pressure cylinder between the support column and the flywheel, on the side opposite the low-pressure cylinder. This improvement could be retrospectively fitted to existing engines.

Family

William McNaught was born on 27 May 1813 at

Paisley, Renfrewshire Paisley ( ; ; ) is a large town situated in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Located north of the Gleniffer Braes, the town borders the city of Glasgow to the east, and straddles the banks of the White Cart Water, a tributary of the River ...

, Scotland, son of John McNaught, the inventor of the McNaught

indicator Indicator may refer to: Biology * Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses) * Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes) * Health indicator, which is used to describe the health o ...

Engine building

McNaught patented his compound steam engine in 1845 (Patent no. 11001). He relocated to Manchester in 1849. The Robertson Street workshop was operated by William McNaught & Son as "Makers of Steam-Engine Indicators, Steam Gauges, etc" at 12 Hampden Terrace, Glasgow, at least until 1895. MacNaught died in

Chorlton upon Medlock Chorlton may refer to: Places * Chorlton, Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England * Chorlton, Cheshire West and Chester, in Cheshire, England *Chorlton-cum-Hardy Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of Manchester, England, southwest of the Manc ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, on 8 January 1881, leaving two sons who carried on the business. He was buried in Glasgow.

McNaught'ed beam engines

A beam engine might run at , using one low-pressure cylinder steamed by an 1840 wagon boiler, but when McNaught'ed the new high-pressure cylinder could run at over , which the then-new Lancashire boiler could produce. In addition the stress on the centre of the beam was substantially reduced, and stress on the crank pin slightly reduced. This was important in preventing beam failure. Many engine makers McNaught'ed existing beam engines, including William McNaught of Rochdale, as the thermodynamic (and fuel efficiency) benefits of high-pressure steam were beginning to be understood. Bolton Steam Museum displays a McNaught'ed beam engine. The Cellars Clough mill engine was McNaught'ed by Woodhouse and Mitchell of Brighouse in 1909.

References

Notes Bibliography * * * 1813 births 1881 deaths British steam engine engineers Engineers from Paisley, Renfrewshire 19th-century Scottish inventors {{Scotland-engineer-stub