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Dawn Bowskill has transcribed the invoices relating to the construction of John Braithwaite's 1817 water wheel and pump on the River Witham at Belton. The prime purposes of the wheel were to pump water into an extant cistern in the Mansion's attic for fire fighting and for the fountain in Wyatville's Italian Garden c.1820. The pump was disconnected possibly around 1873. It has ended up at the Science Museum, London. Kept in store, it has never been on show to our knowledge. This page explains how the pump worked when still at Belton.
Dawn Bowskill has transcribed the invoices relating to the construction of John Braithwaite's 1817 water wheel and pump on the River Witham at Belton. The prime purposes of the wheel were to pump water into an extant cistern in the Mansion's attic for fire fighting and for the fountain in Wyatville's Italian Garden c.1820. The pump was disconnected possibly around 1873. It has ended up at the Science Museum, London. Kept in store, it has never been on show to our knowledge. This page explains how the pump worked when still at Belton.
Cragside in Northumberland became the first house to be powerered by hydroelectricity c.1870s. The scullery at Belton was equipped with Direct Current lighting running off the water wheel possibly around 1900. Return to Architecture homepage.
Cragside in Northumberland became the first house to be powerered by hydroelectricity c.1870s. The scullery at Belton was equipped with Direct Current lighting running off the water wheel possibly around 1900. Return to Architecture homepage.
Braithwaite's 1817 4-barrel piston pump before its removal from the Pump House in 1933. By this time it had been disconnected. The replacement 1878 pump is just visible to the left.
Two of the gunmetal cylinders, note detail of bolts discussed below.
The waterwheel 12 feet in diameter, is made of cast iron photographed in 2012.
Water wheel in 2022. The Braithwaite pump was replaced with a simpler, 3-barrel pump, seen right and below with the year plate, 1878 on it. The wheel was restored in 2011 and is able to turn. The three bolts on the replacement pump look the same as those seen on the Btaithwaite pump.
Replacement pump year plate
The 1817 pump house on the River Witham . The headrace feeding water to the wheel is upstream behind the fencing, beyond which, lies Braithwaite's sluice gate. The tail race drains in the centre, in front of the house. A third branch from the upstream Witham drains through Viscount Tyrconnel's c.1744 Wilderness. The main outlet for water from Belton's Lakes, Mirror Pond and fountain, and effluent from the Mansion's 19th century water closets lies to the right. The turbulent water flushed the latter away, downstream to Barkston.
In the pump house, the direction of flow was either ON FOR THE HOUSE (left), or ON FOR THE GARDEN (right) controlled by a horizontal handwheel (right image). There is some uncertainty where the garden flow goes to either the formal gardens or the former Kitchen gardens on the other side of the A607 or both. There are two cisterns in the attic of the House. The one in the west is likely the original, see images below.
Water TaNk
Water TaNk
Thought to be the cistern for the Pump located in the west attic of the House
steps
steps
The cistern has the dimensions quoted by Braithwaite - see the image right
inside water tank
inside water tank
'The Cistern 8 feet long 4ft wide and 5ft deep will Contain 900 Gallons'
Belton's pump languishes unseen at the Science Museum, London. Its oval name plate states, BRAITHWAITE FECIT 1817 LONDON. The lower version is from the in situ pump photograph and is in better condition.
Here is a 'souvenir' bolt from Braithwaite's engine with 1933 engraved on it at the Science Museum. Other components from the pump can be seen on their website.
Another 3 identical bolts are re-used on the 1873 replacement crank shaft visible in the images above, both with the engine still in situ and today, but are missing from the dismantled pump at the Science Museum.
Materials used were : Brass (copper, zinc alloy), cast iron, gunmetal, wrought iron and paint.
Description of action
Description of action
The Science Museum has not published details of how the pump works, but we can surmise based on contemporary pumps and the description of the pumps parts.
The waterwheel is either breastshot or undershot. This turns a cogged driving wheel that engages with two smaller cogs, each turning a crankshaft operating on a cylinder pair.
The crankshafts convert rotational energy to linear motion by vertical connecting rods that drive the pistons in their cylinders. One piston of the pair gives a suction stroke, while the other provides a delivery stroke, alternating. Water enters the cylinder or leaves it via one way clack valves.
Braithwaite's plate is mounted on the central, air vessel, left. An air vessel is fitted on the delivery side to dampen out the pressure variations during discharge. As the discharge pressure rises the air is compressed in the vessel, and as the pressure falls the air expands. The peak pressure energy is thus stored in the air and returned to the system when pressure falls avoiding surges that can damage piping.
This Bourdon pressure gauge is seen on the in situ pump photographs. The dial, which measures water pressure in lbs per sq inch on a scale of 0 to 100, allows operators to track the force of the water moving through the unit's copper and gun-metal components. Connected to the pump via a siphon tube designed to protect the delicate internal mechanism from mechanical surges, this gauge serves as a vital diagnostic tool for the engine's operation. French engineer Eugène Bourdon patented the device in 1849 after discovering the principle during the construction of a steam engine. The invention gained recognition at the 1851 London Great Exhibition, where it was awarded a Council Medal.
Before this was added, pressure was measured based on the flow of water. If still connected, because this pump is powered by a waterwheel, the reading shown of 21 reflects the mechanical work being transferred from the wheel's rotation through the 180° crankshafts into fluid pressure.
A further Braithwaite invoice for £7,000 of 1843 refers to the visit of an engineer and workers who provided,
A Middling of Stout leather for leathering Pumping Engine
This could either refer to the water wheel pump or a Braithwaite steam fire engine. Leather hoses date back to the 17th century and had to be treated by rubbing with tallow to make them supple. After 1850, the flax then the rubber hose was developed. Image above: Copper rivetted hose - Internet-sourced.
From an album at Belton, NT 433922
"REPORT ON PUMPS at BELTON HOUSE, GRANTHAM.
The pumps are interesting because in so many ways they are representative of engineering practice in the early years of the 19th century. They are of further interest because of the name plate: BRAITHWAITE/FECIT 1817/LONDON. John Braithwaite was an eminent engineer who was responsible with John Ericsson for the design and construction in 1829-30 of the first steam fire engine, and of the "Novelty" locomotive which competed in the Rainhill Competition of 1829. Braithwaite subsequently became engineer to the Eastern Counties Railway.
The design of the pumps in many respects appear to be based on the table steam engine patented by Henry Maudsley in 1807. The framing has the interesting architectural form which was commonly given to engines in the early 19th century. The gun metal pump barrels with their copper water cups and the cast iron crankshaft are reminiscent of practice of the late 18th century.
The pump has 4 barrels 4 1/2" diameter whose centre lines are situated at the corners of an imaginary rectangle whose sides are 30" x 12". The pistons are fitted with double cup leathers and are given a stroke of 14". Two separate crankshafts, with cranks set at 180°, are used each driving two pistons, and it was noticed the crankshafts were not set at 90° to each other as is generally done but were arranged at approximately 180°. The crankshafts are geared by pinions, having 35 teeth, to a common wheel, having 100 teeth, fixed to the waterwheel axle. The pistons are driven from the cranks by forked return connecting rods, the piston rods being guided by roller crossheads. The pumps are single ..." [continued]
Left is the 100-tooth common wheel fixed to the water wheel axle see Science Museum image above for its position. It is broken and may account for why the pump was replaced (Science Museum).
John Braithwaite
John Braithwaite
The £75,000 in today's money that Braithwaite received from the 1st Earl Brownlow must have helped finance Braithwaite's pivotal railway and fire engine developments.
Standing on the locomotive are Mr & Mrs Braithwaite, Mr Braithwaite is a descendant of the locomotive builder (Wikipedia).
Braithwaite's company went on to produce locomotives, named William IV and Queen Adelaide. The pair ran trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1830. The William IV pictured, an AI reconstruction is right. Where the driver stood is uncertain. Image from Friedrich Harkort (1833) Die Eisenbahn von Minden nach Coeln.
Braithwaite was joined by John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer and together with Charles Fox they designed the Novelty that took part in the Rainhill Trials of 1829. Images, contemporary below, replica left. During the first day of the trials, it reached a speed of 28 mph. However, it suffered two boiler pipe failures, which allowed the slower Rocket designed by Robert Stephenson to ultimately win.
Above, the first steam fire engine constructed in England, 1830, by Braithwaite and Ericsson (Science Museum) with AI simulation below. The importance of Braithwaite's invention is that horse-drawn, steam-powered engines continued in use for a century. Right, Berkhamsted circa 1929.
View of a Novelty on a railway published in around 1830 taken from a painting by Charles Vignoles, engineer. Vignoles appears to have had a connection with the development of Novelty for the trials. Twenty years later the railway would reach Ambergate Station, Grantham.
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