16 March 2025

Stationary Steam Engine from 1873

For the engineers and nerds in the audience, and other people interested in tech and history, or the history of tech. Also for anyone who likes steampunk, this is very cool.

Abandoned Steam Engine Brought Back to Life! - 1908 Industrial Time Capsule.

It is one hour and 17 minutes, but I think it is interesting.

This is the steam-powered water-pumping plant in Woburn, Massachusetts, which is a little ways north of Boston. It is a double-expansion, condensing steam engine. It was used to pump water to the local reservoir from about 1873 until 1908.

The engine wasn't preserved, so much as just left alone. It apparently took very little to get back up to running condition.

Clean water, available whenever we open a tap, is such a part of our lives, that we never even think about it, or what it would be like if it went away.

More info on the engine can be found at the following link: Woburn 1908 Steam Pump. There are a couple of shorter videos at that link if an hour is too long. Though the video embedded above is at least as good (almost as good, anyway) as the stuff you would find on PBS in the 1980s.

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