The Smethwick Engine is to operate for…

The Smethwick Engine is to operate for more than a century as the world’s oldest working engine.

John Wilkinson, apprenticed to an ironmonger at Liverpool, had became an ironmonger himself about five years later.

Wilkinson had probably worked with his father in his foundry (which included a blast furnace) at Bersham in Denbighshire, but in the late 1750s he had established, with partners, ironworks at Willey, near Broseley in Shropshire.

He had taken over Bersham Ironworks as well in 1761, and in 1766 established the Bradley works in Bilston parish, near Wolverhampton.

This has become his largest and most successful enterprise, and is the site of extensive experiments in getting raw coal to substitute for coke in the production of cast iron.

At its peak, it includes a number of blast furnaces, a brick works, potteries, glass works, and rolling mills.

The Birmingham Canal is subsequently built near the Bradley works.

Among his products are cannons.

These are difficult to cast as the presence of 'honeycombs' (blow holes) is unacceptable to the Board of Ordnance.

Traditional cannons had been cast with a core, but in 1774 Wilkinson had proposed casting them solid and boring out the core afterwards.

Cannons had long been bored to remove imperfections in the casting, but casting them solid and boring out the core after made them much better cannons.

Wilkinson had also invented and patented in 1775 a new kind of boring machine, that drilled a more precise hole.

Unfortunately for him, his invention was not novel, and his patent was eventually repealed.

Another important product is steam engine cylinders.

Because his cylinders are so accurately bored, he becomes the main supplier of these for Boulton & Watt, and also licenses steam engines from them to assist in his ironworks.

The original Birmingham Canal is extremely successful but there is a problem with supplying sufficient water to the Smethwick Summit.

Matthew Boulton's partner, James Watt, had just patented an improvement to the steam engine involving an external condenser which improved the efficiency (and therefore reduced the amount of coal needed to run it).

Steam engines are constructed at either end of the Smethwick Summit to pump water used in the operation of the locks back to the summit.

The Spon Lane Engine (April 1778) operates from the Wolverhampton side, and another, the Smethwick Engine (June 5, 1779), pumps water from the Birmingham side of the summit.