Smethwick Engine

Originally, it was one of two steam engines used to pump water back up to the {{convert|491|ft|m|1|adj=on}} summit level of the BCN Old Main Line (Birmingham Canal) canal at Smethwick, not far from the Soho Foundry where it was made. The other engine, also built by Boulton and Watt, was at the other end of the summit level at Spon Lane. In 1804 a second Boulton and Watt engine was added alongside the 1779 engine.

The engines were needed because local water sources were insufficient to supply water to operate the six locks either side of the canal's original summit. The locks could have been avoided if a tunnel had been built, but the ground was too unstable for James Brindley to build a tunnel using the techniques available at the time. In the 1780s, a cutting was constructed by John Smeaton, enabling three of the six locks on each side to be removed.

File:Engine Arm Aqueduct west.jpg]]

In the 1820s, Thomas Telford constructed a new canal parallel to the old in a deeper cutting, at the {{convert|453|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} Birmingham Level, creating the largest man-made earthworks in the world at the time. It was spanned by the Galton Bridge. The engine was still needed, despite both these developments, and Thomas Telford constructed the Engine Arm Aqueduct carrying the Engine Arm branch canal over his New Main Line so that coal could still be transported along the arm to feed the Smethwick Engine.

File:New Smethwick Pumping Station 2.jpg Pumping Station]]

In 1892, a replacement engine was built in a new pumping house, now Grade II listed,{{National Heritage List for England|num=1077154|desc=Smethwick New Pumping House|grade=II|access-date=8 March 2015}}{{NHLE |num=1077154 |desc=New pumping house, Grade II |access-date=23 April 2007}} next to Brasshouse Lane, as the original Smethwick Engine was considered uneconomic to repair; the latter was removed for preservation in 1897–98{{cite news |author= |title=Weekly notes on Science and Invention |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001701/18980806/102/0026 |newspaper=Sheffield Weekly Telegraph |location=England |date=6 August 1898 |access-date=1 October 2022 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} to the BCN, later British Waterways, Ocker Hill depot where it remained until acquired by Birmingham City Council. It is now part of the collection of Birmingham Museums and is on display at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum at Millennium Point. It is the oldest working engine in the world.

File:Blue plaque Smethwick Engine.jpg at the site of the Smethwick Engine]]

The engine house was demolished in 1897. Its original site and foundations can still be seen on Bridge Street North in Smethwick, just north of the junction with Rolfe Street. Tours of the site can be arranged through the Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre which is based in the New Smethwick Pumping Station and regularly opened by Sandwell Museum Service and The Friends of Galton Valley.

The pumping station was featured in an episode of The Water Boatman presented by Alan Herd on the Discovery Shed TV channel in November 2011.{{relevance|date=April 2024}}

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{{PoIgb|Smethwick Engine original pumphouse|52.4977|-1.9622|SP025889|Bridge Street North, Smethwick}}

{{PoIgb|Engine Arm Aqueduct|52.4979|-1.9665|SP022889|}}

{{PoIgb|New Smethwick Pumphouse|52.4981|-1.9731|SP018889|Brasshouse Lane, Smethwick}}

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{{Portal|United Kingdom|Transport}}

• Canals of the United Kingdom
• History of the British canal system
• Old Bess (beam engine) – the oldest surviving Watt steam engine

{{Reflist}}

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• Birmingham's Canals, Ray Shill, 1999, 2002, {{ISBN|0-7509-2077-7}}

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{{commons category|Smethwick Engine}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929130959/http://www.btinternet.com/~historical.engines/smethwick.htm Model of the Smethwick Engine]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060518230827/http://birminghamstories.co.uk/story_page.php?id=12&type=fo&page=1&now=0 The Smethwick Engine at Thinktank, Birmingham science museum]

{{Thinktank, Birmingham}}

{{Birmingham Canal Navigations}}

{{Steam engine configurations}}

Category:Preserved beam engines

Category:Transport in Sandwell

Category:Birmingham Canal Navigations

Engine

Category:Collection of Thinktank, Birmingham

Category:1779 in England

Category:1779 in science

Category:History of the steam engine

Category:Industrial Revolution

Category:James Watt