Talk:Portable engine

Article creation

Following discussions at Talk:Traction engine I intend to change this page from Redirect to an article. Biscuittin (talk) 20:54, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Images

I have digital images of a marine-boilered example (round firebox) plus a close-up of one with a fancy chimney-lowering mechanism, both taken at GDSF 2007.

Unfortunately, my GDSF 2006 pictures are prints, but I know I have a number of shots of portables driving threshing gear that year.

There are certainly more on Commons, too (incidentally, is there a Commons cat yet? Can't remember if I created one or not).

Watch this space...

EdJogg (talk) 01:28, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

GDSF 2007 pics added. Commonscat link added. Most of pics on Commons do not have the 'wow' factor, so have not been added (they do not add new information to the article).

Haven't looked for GDSF 2006 prints yet, but I know I have several pics of a portable on thrashing duty. Can't remember what else, off hand, as I took nearly 100 pics that year. (This year it was closer 200, plus video!!)

EdJogg (talk) 10:31, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Further references...

• (Steam-era) History of the traction engine.
  Mostly concerns US development of traction engines and threshing machines (is it on traction engine yet?), but also mentions portables.
• (Steam-era) History of the Sawyer Massey company
  Mid-article includes interesting description of a portable design from 1880, different to the conventional design, and dropped by the manufacturer as was less preferred by customers.
• (Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia) Marshall Britannia portable steam engine, 1914
  Already used as a ref, page includes a great deal of background information about portables, Marshall, etc

• Want to see some portables? Look at http://www.prestonservices.co.uk/portables.htm. Looked today and it listed 32 engines for sale (with pics, numbers and minor specs), mostly complete but unrestored, with some very unsusal examples. Sizes ranged from 10 NHP (Davey Paxman) to 1/2 NHP. Manufacturers and highlights (notes taken from website) included:
  • Brown & May
  • Clayton & Shuttleworth (2)
  • Davey Paxman ('Duplex' (twin-cylinder))
  • Foster (1885 - 2nd oldest known Foster)
  • Garrett (2, one from 1883 - very early Garrett - oldest in UK?)
  • Hindley 1/2 NHP - 2-wheel, 'handcart' arrangement, smallest English portable ever?
  • ITALO-SVIZZERA (Italy)(3, including a 1 NHP example 'smallest portable ever?' (but still weighed a ton!))
  • Lanz (Mannheim, Germany) (3, one was originally an 'Electric light engine', complete with canopy and dynamo)
  • Marshall (5, three of which were the 'Britannia' type, as pictured in the article)
  • Ransomes, Sims, and Jeffries (6)
  • Robey (1878 - earlist Robey known to exist?)
  • Ruston Proctor (4, including an unusual one with a vertical boiler!)
  • Sentinel (the only-known Sentinel single-cylinder portable)

EdJogg (talk) 00:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Searches

A Google for "'portable engine' steam development" is highly productive; have barely scratched the surface of the results generated...

EdJogg (talk) 14:53, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Did You Know? entry

• ...that a steam-powered portable engine (example pictured) drove the dynamo for the first floodlit football match in the UK in 1878?

This is the DYK entry as it appeared on the Main Page on 7th Jan.
What's more, it was first in the list!
(Pity I didn't manage to find one of MY photos to do the job...oh well, maybe next time...)
EdJogg (talk) 16:28, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Need Diagram

We need a diagram detailing the inside of the portable engine. Bobbyb30q (talk) 21:05, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Would be interesting, wouldn't it? Are you any good at drawing? (None of my sources include such a diagram to copy.)

EdJogg (talk) 01:31, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Can probably supply one - either from a contemporary source or from some drawings I did a few years ago for one of the clubs. Chenab (talk) 17:03, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Engine in Science Museum

My understanding has always been that it is uncertain exactly which Trevithick engine is preserved in the Science Museum and various claims have been made.

There are certainly good reasons for doubting that it is the 'barn engine' as it believed to predate it. The biggest problem is that prior to its discovery on a scrap heap in 1882 the previous history of the preserved engine is unknown. Another problem is that the 'barn engine' was exhibited at Kilburn RASE show only a few years prior (1879 from memory) and known of the technical writers of the time believed it to be the same engine.

Chenab (talk) 16:22, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

General Layout

Historically the design of the portable is the earlier one and it is the traction engine layout which is reversed with the earlier layout continuing in both portables and centre engines (e.g. cylinders at firebox end).

The design has nothing to do with the positioning of the regulator, this after all is merely a matter of linkages and it is similarly adjacent to the firebox of practically every traction engine for the same reasons of making it easier for the driver. The more important issue is that it made sense to reverse the layout on traction engines and bring the crankshaft closer to the rear axle since these are the driven wheels. This is important to reduce chain length on early machines but even more so once gears became the standard.

I'd be surprised if Thomas Aveling had any more luck at preventing an engine from stopping on dead centre than any other driver. It is not simply an issue of being careless, A single cylinder engine has a certain preference for stopping in one of those positions. Chenab (talk) 16:32, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Further Reading

The TEE Reprint of Wansbrough's book is of the 2nd edition from 1911. The earlier edition is different. Chenab (talk) 15:48, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Portable engine and Steam tractor merge?

They both have de:Lokomobil as an interwiki link. I don't know if this means they are basically the same concept or not? --pfctdayelise (talk) 16:51, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Since the first is funamentally NOT self-propelled, and the second fundamentally IS, no they are very much not the same thing. You will find that traction engine has the same link too, and it is more the case that I have been pushing for separate articles in the English Wikipedia to cover the separate topics. The German WP may well catch up, after all, I've just found one of my GDSF pictures there! (I've also changed their link to point to Traction engine!!) EdJogg (talk) 18:33, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Photo of a hit-and-miss on a trolley

Hi Three-quarter-ten. I removed the photo of the hit and miss engine because it is not a portable. Granted, somebody has mounted it on a trolley but that doesn't really make it a portable. What's the general concensus? --Roly (talk) 19:20, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I've just (before I saw this) removed this for a second time. This is a stationary engine, not a portable engine, despite being the more obviously portable. Andy Dingley (talk) 19:41, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

ww2 revival

When I find a source that isn't a museum sign need to mention ww2 revival.©Geni (talk) 18:35, 2 October 2016 (UTC)