A Hundred Years of Engineering Craftsmanship 1857 - 1957
Despite their
considerable success with steam engines Tangyes were ever vigorous in exploring
new fields. The high standards of engineering craftsmanship throughout the
works enabled them to undertake new lines of production and keep well abreast
of the latest developments. Between 1880 and 1900, therefore, Tangyes established themselves as
manufacturers of gas and oil engines. This early start with the internal
combustion engine was due partly to foresight and partly to good fortune in
finding another inventor to rank in the Company’s annals with Weston and
Cameron.
Although experiments with gas engines had been conducted in Europe and America
over a number of years, it was not until Dr. N. A. Otto built his successful
Silent Gas Engine in 1876 that the engine became a practical manufacturing
proposition. Otto had worked for twenty years before he produced the engine
which was sufficiently economical and efficient to make the internal combustion
engine a valuable prime mover — potentially as important to industrial history
as the steam engine.
Adopting a system advocated by Beau de Rochas in 1862, Otto had worked out a
four-stroke cycle with a good form of flame ignition, the compression and
explosion of the gas and air mixture taking place within the one cylinder.
While Crossleys of Manchester obtained the licence to manufacture the Otto in
Great Britain
rival designs were being rapidly developed, especially in the two-stroke field.
The latter part of the ‘seventies was consequently a period of great excitement
with new gas engines appearing every year. Of these the best-known was probably
the two-stroke engine of Dugald Clerk which he patented in 1878. The main
feature of this engine was a separate pump which compressed the gas and air
mixture into a reservoir. The mixture was then admitted to the power cylinder
and ignited during the first part of its stroke, exhaust gases being removed on
the return stroke. This patent was superseded in 1881 by an engine in which the
pump was used only as a displacer, the mixture entering the cylinder at about
lb. per square inch above atmospheric pressure; the entering charge displaced
the exhaust gases by way of ports overrun by the piston.
Meanwhile Tangyes were actively searching for a machine already perfected in
design and suitable for manufacture in quantity. Various paper inventions had
already been rejected when in April 1879 Gentle, of the London Office, saw H.
Woolfe ‘re Gas Engine’ and arranged for one to be sent to Soho. This must have
proved a failure for in the autumn the firm opened negotiations with Frederick
Hurd, Engineer, of Edinburgh and Wakefield, for the
exclusive licence to manufacture his Patent Silent Gas Engine. For several
weeks Hurd was hesitant about terms and although in November he forwarded
several orders he had still not produced his sample 6 horse-power engine.
A more promising agreement was next made with Horace Robinson of Manchester, who took Out
a patent in June 1880 entitled ‘Improvements in Gas Motor Engines’. Tangyes
undertook to make this engine and Robinson was to come to Soho to supervise the manufacture.
George Tangye pressed him to send his prototype
at the earliest convenience. Robinson, however, was as dilatory as Hurd and by
December 188o his drawings for the engine had still not appeared.
Frustrated on two counts Tangyes now met a man whose work on the gas engine was
fundamental and of long standing. This was not known to them when, in December
1880, George Haswell wrote to James Robson about a direct-acting pump to be
driven by gas as that is an apparatus which would, I have every reason to suppose, be
useful in many special cases where steam or air are not available. I would be
glad to know if you have made one of these pumps, and if so where it could be
seen.’
Haswell
and Robson, both natives of North Shields, seem to have met during the
Christmas holiday, for on 4thJanuary, 1881, Robson signed an agreement giving
Tangyes sole right for the manufacture of his gas-operated pump and gas hammer.
The patent of 1880 which covered the pump and hammer also included an engine
designed on the spring-type atmospheric pressure principle. R. Waygood &
Co., of London, had already begun manufacture of this engine which was exhibited as the London
Gas Engine at the London Cattle Show in 1880. Soon after he had signed his
agreement with Tangyes, Robson brought them two earlier patents which covered a
different type of gas engine of the kind for which they had long been
searching.
The value and originality of Robson’s work on the development of the internal
combustion engine has been comparatively neglected for he was a man who sought
no fame for himself nor publicity for his work. James Robson was born in North
Shields in 1833, son of James Robson, builder and contractor. His lifelong
study of problems of internal combustion began quite accidentally. On his
return from a visit to the Great Exhibition of 1851, he set out to construct an
incubator similar to one which he had seen exhibited. Using, for convenience, town
gas instead of paraffin, he soon discovered the explosive nature of a gas and
air mixture. He was immediately diverted from his original purpose to an
investigation of the pressures exerted on a small closed cylinder— 24 in. long
and 3 in. diameter — by the ignition of mixtures of gas and air in various
proportions. The maximum
pressure which he obtained was between 6o and 70 lb. per sq. in. By 1857 Robson
had built his first gas engine working on the direct-explosive atmospheric
principle with an explosion at every revolution of the crankshaft. Designed
entirely for experiment this engine furnished Robson with experience and
information on which to base his plans for larger working engines. He spent,
for example, some time on developing various systems of ignition.
Robson’s second engine was soon built in 1858-9. It was of three horse-power
and was set to work driving a circular saw in his father’s workshop, where it
was successfully employed, until frost burst the water jacket. Two more engines
of similar design were also installed in North Shields; one for driving the
printing machinery at the offices of the Shields Daily .News and the
other — of one horse-power — at Simpson & Mustard’s Printing Works. These
working engines establish Robson among the earliest pioneers of the internal
combustion engine.
Although the designs incorporated several important features, such as cooling
of the working cylinder by a water jacket and ignition by an electric spark,
Robson took out no patents. His interests were now absorbed by the possibility
of compressing the gases before ignition in order to improve the efficiency of
the earlier engine. Unfortunately at this vital stage his experiments were
interrupted; first, by the destruction of his workshop and experimental engine
when the gable end of his ironmongery shop collapsed during excavations on the
adjoining land. And secondly, by the death of his uncle which made it necessary
for him to help his father with the building and quarry business in North
Shields. Nothing, however, could quell Robson’s enthusiasm for the gas engine.
He was soon at work on a vacuum type of engine. This was followed by his
Vertical Spring-Type Atmospheric Engine, later revived and included in the 1880 patent. From these he moved to
his most important invention the ‘two-cycle’ gas engine. The first patent,
which he took out in 1877, clearly shows Robson to have been the first to
design a two-cycle engine, giving an impulse at every revolution of the
crankshaft, in which compression was performed in the same cylinder as
ignition, combustion and expulsion of the gases. Other two-cycle engines, like
Dugald Clerk’s, had used a separate pump for compression and for charging the
motor cylinder. Only the four-cycle engines of Otto’s design, giving an impulse
for every two revolutions of the crankshaft, had previously compressed the
mixture in the cylinder.
Robson improved the design and obtained a second patent for his two-cycle
engine in 1879. This was the engine which he brought to Tangyes in 1881. An
arrangement was quickly made between Tangyes, Robson and Messrs. Waygood &
Co., giving to both companies equal rights to manufacture Robson’s engine and
Robinson’s engine, the patent of which was now owned by Tangyes. Tangyes
immediately concentrated upon Robson’s two-cycle engine and Robinson’s patents
were allowed to lapse in 1885.
Knowledge and experience of gas-engine problems was still very limited, but the
Robson engine enabled the firm to make an early and successful start with the
internal combustion engine at a vital stage in its commercial development. The
Robson engine was exhibited for the British Association Meeting in Birmingham in 1886. The
first size, was a one horse-power engine built on the Tangye steam engine bed.
Later half, two-and-a-half and four horse-power sizes were made. About 300 Robson engines were sent
out from Cornwall Works to various markets, including Denmark, Sweden, Spain, New Zealand and Australia.
While Robson concentrated upon the gas engine his other inventions were put on
one side. Eventually he returned to work on the Gas Forging Hammer, and by 1884
it was ready to be put into production. The first of its kind, it attracted
considerable attention when first exhibited the next year. Although sales were
limited — partly because of prevailing trade depression — credit is due to the
skill and workmanship which made its development possible.
Throughout these years trials were also being made at Cornwall Works with
various other types of gas engine. In 1886-7 Tangyes began building Clerk’s
patent two-stroke gas engines. Meanwhile a new four-stroke engine was designed
by Charles W. Pinkney, who had been with the firm since 1876. Working closely
with Robson on his gas engine, and responsible for considerable improvements in
the design of the gas hammer, Pinkney’s inventiveness and experience made him
extremely valuable to Tangyes in these years. He was soon given charge of the
gas engine ‘sheds’ and his opinion was relied upon for the assessment of new
gas-engine inventions submitted to the firm.
Pinkney’s gas engine was ready by 1889 and in running was found to be slightly
more economical than the ‘Otto’. The ‘Otto’ patent, however, was by this time
rapidly running out and it was eventually decided in the Spring of 1891 to
start manufacturing a four-cycle engine on the ‘Otto’ principle rather than to
proceed with the unknown Pinkney model. Soho engines built on this plan brought a large increase in trade and soon
extensions to the gas-engine department became necessary. Governed on the
hit-and-miss principle, these engines produced that irregular running beat
which was at one time so familiar. Many of them gave exceptionally long
periods of service and some are still at work in Birmingham.
The value and use of the gas engine was greatly extended by the. introduction
of the gas producer. As early as 1893 Tangyes investigated the possibilities of
the ‘Blum’ Gas Producer, but decided not to start manufacture at that period.
The following year Pinkney designed a ‘Hydro-carbon Gas Producer’, which was
also laid aside. Not until 1905 was
a gas producer introduced as part of the regular output at Cornwall Works. This
was a ‘suction’ gas producer designed to work on three types of fuel; hard
coals: soft fuels like bituminous coals and lignite; and vegetable fuels such
as wood waste, sawdust, or anything combustible which the neighbourhood might
have to offer.
The versatility of this gas producer widened the potential market for the gas
engine both by reducing the cost of fuel and by enabling the engines to be used
well away from a source of town’s gas. During the following twenty-five
years large numbers of producers were made and the firm acquired great
experience in their design and application. Many are still in use.
Apart
from water-power, the gas producer in conjunction with the gas engine, gave the
cheapest power in the world. In 1906 it was calculated that the suction gas
producer using anthracite would develop 10 to 20 B.H.P. for a penny an hour. This was ideal for small
concerns where power was required, and was an equally good investment for those
dependent on erratic water supplies such as the Welsh woollen mills in the
lower valleys.
On the heels of the gas engine, and as the natural development, came petroleum
and oil engines. The Priestman paraffin or kerosene engines exhibited between
1885 and 1890; the work of Akroyd Stuart with heavy oil engines, which produced
the Hornsby-Akroyd engine in 1894; and the first Diesel engine built by the
Augsburg Company in 1897, were the major landmarks in this development which
brought oil engines to the forefront in industrial development and
mechanization.
Alongside his gas engine Pinkney was developing in the late ‘eighties a
petroleum engine which he patented in 1891. This was the refined petroleum
engine which Tangyes introduced in 1892. Work on these engines intensified as
years went by — they were a strong selling line in many home and foreign
markets.
A portable oil engine of Pinkney’s design was shown at the Royal Agricultural
Show of 1898. This engine, which developed 6 B.H.P.,incorporated an unusual arrangement for cooling the
water:
The engine draws the water out of a tank that forms its base, and forces it through the cylinder jacket
and thence through a pipe from the top of the cylinder, on to a canopy, where
the water is split up and cooled while being exposed to the atmosphere. The
water next passes on to the roof of the carriage where it is collected and
allowed to drain back into the base or tank of the engine, and used over again.
Greater success was achieved by a new, lighter, and less expensive paraffin
engine especially designed for agriculture which made its appearance some ten
years later.
In 1910 Tangyes
introduced a range of engines running on crude oil. These engines were of the
semi-diesel type using blow-lamp heating for starting. The disadvantages of
this system were overcome by the introduction in 1916 of a cold-starting oil
engine. This engine started on petroleum and then turned over to the oil which
it used as fuel. It was the immediate fore-runner of the present-day
compression ignition engine which Tangyes began to make in 1920. This engine, which ran on
a wide range of low-grade oils, was of a sturdy horizontal design and proved
extremely popular for many overseas markets. Its ability to stand up to
unskilled attention made it especially popular in Eastern countries where it
was widely used in agriculture, for drainage and irrigation. Manufacture of a
modern version of this engine still continues at Cornwall Works; general
production of gas engines, however, ceased in 1939.
In the years between the end of the nineteenth century and the outbreak of the
First World War, the foundations of the present age were laid not only in such
applied scientific developments as the internal combustion engine, but also by
increasing government activity
in social welfare. Public Health Acts administered by new local authorities,
for example, made essential the construction of many large waterworks and
sewage disposal schemes. The war accelerated these public health measures in
many areas. Throughout the period Tangyes obtained many valuable contracts for
this type of work at home and abroad. As manufacturers of a considerable range
both of engines and pumps, they were particularly well placed to carry out
complete installations. According to the requirements of the job, pumps of
almost any type could be coupled with steam, gas or oil engines and serviced as
a unit — facilities which very few competitors could equal.
Many of these plants are still giving excellent service and stand as a tribute
to Tangye reliability. Two such installations which have been in use for over
thirty years, are those designed and engineered in 1924 for the Leicester Corporation and the Mid-Kent Water
Company. The first was one of the largest pumping plants ever built by Tangyes:
at the time the three 36 in. stroke Treble Ram Pumps, each weighing about 100
tons, were the largest of their kind in the country. They are still giving
eighteen hours of trouble-free running every day. The second consisted of a
pair of large deep-well pumps driven by oil engines. These, too, are still
eminently satisfactory for their daily work and, moreover, cost less to run
than many more recent plants.
