Part-time curator Ted Archer took Orrock Robertsen on a walk through Stutterheim’s Stationary Engine Museum, a community project that’s now home to about 100 machines, from pumps and generators to jet engines – many of which are in full working order.
Of South Africa’s two engine museums, the Stutterheim Stationary Engine Museum, open to the public for 14 years, actually outsizes the one in Johannesburg.
“The museum was founded by electrician and motorbike fanatic Ron Starky, who retired from East London to Stutterheim about 15 years ago,” says Ted Archer, part of the 25-member Engine Museum Society of Stutterheim and part-time curator.
“Everybody thought it was ludicrous when he suggested it, but Ron dug the foundations himself with two labourers. Before long, someone donated a steel structure, a local engineer put it up at cost and a local retailer even provided the cladding at cost. We had to approach various institutions for funding, but ultimately it was a real community project.”
Ron didn’t just want to showcase the engines – he wanted a working museum. “Currently we have about 100 engines, of which 30 function,” says Ted.
“Some take years to rebuild as there are just no parts available, so we build the parts ourselves. Sometimes there isn’t even information available and we have to get truly inventive.” The museum originally planned to display only stationary engines, and most of the exhibits worked as pumps or generators, but they have accepted donated jet and car engines. “Some come from as far as Nelspruit and Stellenbosch, some are dropped off by farmers and some we collect in pieces from the veld,” says Ted. |fw
Mietz and Weiss hot bulb a cool customer
Built in 1905, the Museum’s Mietz and Weiss hot bulb steam injection engine actually runs. “It was designed in 1897 and manufactured by August Mietz Iron Foundry and Machine Works, New York, US,” explains Ted. “It has a six-inch bore and seven-inch stroke, with a capacity of 3 230cc producing 4hp. It spent most of its working life pumping water for irrigation on the banks of the Swart Kei and was donated by Gavin Kemp of Cathcart.
Some of the machine’s features were innovations at the time. For example, injector pumps inject paraffin into the cylinder head, much like a modern diesel engine.
To start the engine a “hot bulb” attached to the cylinder would have been heated by a large primus stove. Today, the museum uses a gas blow torch for about 10 minutes. The fly wheels are then turned hard against the compression and released. “The spray from the injector nozzle lands on the heated tip of the bulb, ignition takes place and the engine starts,” explains Ted.
The engine features a water tank on the side of the cylinder casting, in which the water level is monitored by a float. When it runs, water enters the water jacket from the tank and is heated by the cylinder. The steam passes through the steam dome to the air intake, mixes with the incoming air and becomes part of the explosive mixture in the combustion chamber, allowing the engine to generate more power. This technology was used in the Spitfires of the 1940s, to generate more thrust out of the Rolls Royce engines.
She’s a (famous) beauty!
This next specimen is a 1928 Allen “Maud”, manufactured by WH Allen & Sons Co. Ltd, Bedford, England. This twin-cylinder semi-diesel two-stroke engine was one of two installed at the Molteno power plant in 1928. It takes about a half-hour to start because the huge hot bulbs on the cylinder head have to heat up. Because it’s so big, the engine only has to run at 325rpm to produce 70hp. The “Maud” is still fully operational and still produces electricity. “It wasn’t in working order and we had to transport it from Molteno and rebuild it,” Ted says. “Originally these engines would have been delivered by oxwagon. Depending on the size ordered, they could weigh 13t to 30t.”
The members of the Molteno municipality who tended the engine named it after contemporary actress Maud Allen, who has a short biography posted in the Museum. The star performer at London’s Palace Theatre, and was famous throughout the British empire and beyond. “That fame was tarnished by notoriety,” reads the biography. “Her performance of the Vision of Salome made her into a sexual icon.”
Earth moves under Blackstone giant
The museum’s showstopper has to be the 1953 Blackstone TP Diesel, laid on a 12cm3 cement foundation just to keep this single-cylinder giant attached to the ground. The earth moves when this beast is up and running. “It was manufactured by Blackstone & Co, Stanford, England, has an 11,75 inch bore and a 15,5 inch stroke and produces 77hp at 420rpm,” explains Ted. It’s started with 600kPa of compressed air, sucking in 27 of air on each piston. The engine was one of two used to power the Ugie Orphanage, before Tut Miles of Tylden farm near Queenstown bought it to power his irrigation system. Tut ultimately sold it to the engine society.
