Lap Engine: Difference between revisions

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{{Use dmy dates|date=JuneOctober 20112020}}

{{Infobox historic engine

|name = ''Lap Engine''

|image = File:GeographScience Museum - the 'lap engine' (geograph 3661968-by-Chris-Allen).jpg

|image_size =

|alt =

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|collection = [[Science Museum Group]]

|___location = [[Science Museum, London]]

|accession = 1861-461861–46<ref name="Science-Museum-1861-46">{{Cite web

|title=Rotative steam engine by Boulton and Watt, 1788.

|website=Science Museum

|url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/motive_power/1861-46.aspx

|access-date=13 March 2015

}}</ref>

|archive-date=24 September 2015

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924114903/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/motive_power/1861-46.aspx

|url-status=dead

}}</ref>

|working = No

}}

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It is important as both an early example of a beam engine by Boulton and Watt, and also mainly as illustrating an important innovative step in their development for its ability to produce rotary motion.<ref name="Dickinson & Jenkins, 1927" /><ref name="Crowley, Lap Engine" />

The engines name comes from its use in [[Matthew Boulton]]'s [[Soho Manufactory]], where it was used to drive a line of 43 polishing or [[lapping]] machines, used for the [[Birmingham toy industry|production of buttons and buckles]].<ref name="SM, Lap Engine" /><ref name="Hulse, web, Lap Engine" />

== Innovations ==

[[File:Thinktank Birmingham - object 1950S00022(1).jpg|thumb|A 1950 model of the engine, now in [[Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum]] ]]

Watt did not invent the [[steam engine]] and there is no single '[[Watt steam engine]]' as such. He developed a number of separate innovations, each of which improved the existing engines of the day, beginning with [[Newcomen atmospheric engine|Newcomen's]]. The Lap Engine of 1788, also the [[Whitbread Engine]] (1785), represent survivors of the first engines to show all of Watt's major improvements in one.<ref name="Crowley, Lap Engine" />

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=== Sun and planet gear ===

[[File:Sun and planet gear science museum.JPG|thumb|The [[Sunsun and planet gear]]]]

{{Details|Sun and planet gear}}

The [[rotative beam engine]] needs a means to convert [[reciprocating motion]] of the piston and beam to [[rotary motion]]. The [[crankshaft]] was well known for centuries before Watt, mostly from its use in mining machinery powered by [[water wheel]]s. However its use for a steam engine was covered by [[James Pickard]]'s patent at this time.<ref>{{Cite book

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|publisher=Read Books

|year=2007

|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=95MUkfFgBFwC&pg=PA35

|isbn=978-1-4067-8053-6

|page=35

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[[File:Boulton and Watt centrifugal governor-MJ.jpg|thumb|upright|The Watt-type [[centrifugal governor]] at the Science Museum, London.]]

{{Details|Centrifugal governor}}

According to the Science Museum, it was the first steam engine to be fitted with a [[centrifugal governor]].<ref name="Science-Museum-1861-46"/>{{efn|The earlier [[Whitbread Engine]] of 1785, and the 1786 engine at the [[National Museum of Scotland]] also hashave a centrifugal governor.}}

{{clear right}}

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|title=Rotative steam engine by Boulton and Watt, 1788.

|website=Science Museum

|url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co50948/rotative-steam-engine-by-boulton-and-watt-1788-beam-engines

|url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/online_science/explore_our_collections/objects/index/smxg-50948

}}</ref>

<ref name="Hulse, web, Lap Engine" >{{Cite web

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|last2=Jenkins |first2=R.

|title=James Watt and the Steam Engine

|origyearorig-year=1927

|year=1981

|publisher=Moorland Publishing

|isbn=0-903485-92-3

|ref={{harvid|Dickinson|Jenkins|1927}}

}}</ref>

|pages=

}}</ref>

<ref name="Crowley, Lap Engine" >{{Cite book

|last=Crowley |first=T.E.

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|year=1982

|isbn=0-906831-02-4

|}}</ref=harv>

|pages=

}}</ref>

}}

== Further reading ==

{{steam engine configurations|state=collapsed}}

* {{Cite magazine

|magazine=[[Model Engineer]]

|volume=146 |issue=3626

|title=Watt's Lap Engine

|date=1 February 1980

}}

{{steam engine configurations|state=collapsed}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2011}}

[[Category:Preserved beam engines]]

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[[Category:1788 in science]]

[[Category:Industrial Revolution]]

[[Category:History of the steam engine]]

[[Category:James Watt]]