| About the Author and this
Site In 1974 I started a project which was to occupy all my spare time for the following 26 years. I have researched and constructed in miniature all the important steam engines which were built in the 18th century. These engines paved the way for the advancing industrial revolution both in the British Isles and many other countries throughout the world. Although these engines are usually grouped together and called steam engines, they were not steam engines at all. Steam was used as a means of creating a vacuum against which the earth’s pressure could act. The correct terminology is that they were all atmospheric engines. |
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| As you progress through this site,
the engines you will see are all made from exactly the same materials which would have
been available to the engineers of the 18th century. No modern material has
been used on any of the engines. The engine houses are built from real bricks at a reduced
scale of 1/16 the full size. To complete the structures to house the engines 151,000
ceramic bricks were needed and, all were made on a specially designed brick machine. All
the metal parts were either machined from solid metal or made by hand forging to give the
appearance of being made by the engineers of the 18th century.
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