Engine House
The Cornish engine depended on the use of steam pressure above atmospheric pressure, as devised by Richard Trevithick in the 19th century. Trevithick's early "puffer" engines discharged steam into the atmosphere. This differed from the Watt steam engine, which depended solely on the creation of a vacuum when steam was condensed. Trevithick's later ones (in the 1810s) combined the two principles, starting with high pressure steam but also condensing it in a separate condenser. The engines were used to pump out the water to stop the mines flooding. The remains of this engine house is just one of so many found throughout Cornwall. No fear of stepping on rattlers here but falling down a mine shaft is likely :)
Mining in Cornwall Bronze Age (around 2150 BC) and It ended with South Crofty tin mine closing in 1998. Tin and later copper were the most productive of the metals extracted in the county. Arsenic, silver, zinc and a few other metals were also mined over the centuries here.
Engine House
The Cornish engine depended on the use of steam pressure above atmospheric pressure, as devised by Richard Trevithick in the 19th century. Trevithick's early "puffer" engines discharged steam into the atmosphere. This differed from the Watt steam engine, which depended solely on the creation of a vacuum when steam was condensed. Trevithick's later ones (in the 1810s) combined the two principles, starting with high pressure steam but also condensing it in a separate condenser. The engines were used to pump out the water to stop the mines flooding. The remains of this engine house is just one of so many found throughout Cornwall. No fear of stepping on rattlers here but falling down a mine shaft is likely :)
Mining in Cornwall Bronze Age (around 2150 BC) and It ended with South Crofty tin mine closing in 1998. Tin and later copper were the most productive of the metals extracted in the county. Arsenic, silver, zinc and a few other metals were also mined over the centuries here.