Snuffy
Happiness Consultant
For all you ACW buffs ... Ya'll recall that the Hunley was raised, Sunday marks 10 years.
The Lab has something in store ...
The Lab has something in store ...
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The Staff of SOH
OT: This Sunday marks 10 years that Hunley has been raised
- Thread starter Snuffy
- Start date
R
redriver6
Guest
the Hunley is definitely on my ACW 'got to see' list...along with Gettysburg, Antietam and a trip to Petersburg for some ancestor hunting.
I had the pleasure of taking a tiny role in the conservation of another ACW treasure, the U.S.S. Monitor.
In my collection of various steam related items is this humble appearing nameplate. The number is hard to read on it, but appears to be 15004. Given that, and other details, I believe it was made in the mid 1850s; making it the oldest direct acting reciprocating steam pump artifact in the world that I am aware of. (Henry Worthington invented the direct acting reciprocating steam pump in 1844, and established a factory to build it in 1850.) The drawing below it is a Worthington steam pump from about the same period of time; which I found in my research on the web.
View attachment 14787
The U.S.S. Monitor was built in 1862. Along with the gun turret (the first ever installed in a warship) and main engine, the salvage crew from the The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA also raised her pair of Worthington steam pumps.
The Mariner's museum is used to dealing with old steam pumps, but not this old. So, I was contacted by them to compare notes with them. The pumps had also spent their time in the desalination tanks, and because they are smaller, were ready to be removed, washed, and the marine growth cleaned off of them.
We discussed what the outside and inside looked like. I saw online an X-ray they apparently did of the pump that looked a lot like the picture above. They were successful in cleaning the growth off, and taking them apart for restoration.
I had hoped the cleaned pumps would also have nameplates, and help me with dating mine. Alas, they did not; though they had "Worthington" cast into them with the same font as on my nameplate.
-James
In my collection of various steam related items is this humble appearing nameplate. The number is hard to read on it, but appears to be 15004. Given that, and other details, I believe it was made in the mid 1850s; making it the oldest direct acting reciprocating steam pump artifact in the world that I am aware of. (Henry Worthington invented the direct acting reciprocating steam pump in 1844, and established a factory to build it in 1850.) The drawing below it is a Worthington steam pump from about the same period of time; which I found in my research on the web.
View attachment 14787
The U.S.S. Monitor was built in 1862. Along with the gun turret (the first ever installed in a warship) and main engine, the salvage crew from the The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA also raised her pair of Worthington steam pumps.
The Mariner's museum is used to dealing with old steam pumps, but not this old. So, I was contacted by them to compare notes with them. The pumps had also spent their time in the desalination tanks, and because they are smaller, were ready to be removed, washed, and the marine growth cleaned off of them.
We discussed what the outside and inside looked like. I saw online an X-ray they apparently did of the pump that looked a lot like the picture above. They were successful in cleaning the growth off, and taking them apart for restoration.
I had hoped the cleaned pumps would also have nameplates, and help me with dating mine. Alas, they did not; though they had "Worthington" cast into them with the same font as on my nameplate.
-James