Roanoke is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Southwest Virginia along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of the Virginia–North Carolina border and 250 miles (400 km) southwest of Washington, D.C., along Interstate 81. At the 2020 census, Roanoke's population was 100,011, making it the largest city in Virginia west of the state capital Richmond. It is the primary population center of the Roanoke metropolitan area, which had a 2020 population of 315,251.
Steam power developed slowly over a period of several hundred years, progressing through expensive and fairly limited devices in the early 17th century, to useful pumps for mining in 1700, and then to Watt's improved steam engine designs in the late 18th century. It is these later designs, introduced just when the need for practical power was growing due to the Industrial Revolution, that truly made steam power commonplace.
Improvements to the steam engine were some of the most important technologies of the Industrial Revolution, although steam did not replace water power in importance in Britain until after the Industrial Revolution. From Englishman Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine, of 1712, through major developments by Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt, the steam engine began to be used in many industrial settings, not just in mining, where the first engines had been used to pump water from deep workings. Early mills had run successfully with water power, but by using a steam engine a factory could be located anywhere, not just close to a water source. Water power varied with the seasons and was not always available.
The Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks. Designed in 1812 by Frederick Graff and built between 1812 and 1872, it operated until 1909, winning praise for its design and becoming a popular tourist attraction. It now houses a restaurant and an interpretive center that explains the waterworks' purpose and local watershed history. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architecture and its engineering innovations. It was the nation's first water supply to use paddle wheels to move water.
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall. The efficiency of the engines was improved by engineers including James Watt, who added a separate condenser; Jonathan Hornblower and Arthur Woolf, who compounded the cylinders; and William McNaught, who devised a method of compounding an existing engine. Beam engines were first used to pump water out of mines or into canals but could be used to pump water to supplement the flow for a waterwheel powering a mill.
The Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the Metropolitan Board of Works's chief engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and architect Charles Henry Driver. It is located at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works, at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer and the Ridgeway path in the London Borough of Bexley. Constructed between 1859 and 1865 by William Webster, as part of Bazalgette's redevelopment of the London sewerage system, it features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, that Nikolaus Pevsner described as "a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork".
Blagdon Lake lies in a valley at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, close to the village of Blagdon and approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Bristol, England. The lake was created by Bristol Water, when it dammed the River Yeo, starting construction in 1898, to designs by Charles Hawksley, and completing this in 1905. The Wrington Vale Light Railway was constructed primarily to bring building materials for the lake.
A Corliss steam engine is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the US engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island.
The Virginian Railway Passenger Station, also known as the Virginian Station is a former rail station listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the South Jefferson neighborhood of the independent city of Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.A. Located at the intersection of Jefferson Street SE and Williamson Road, the Virginian Station served as a passenger station for the Virginian Railway between 1910 and 1956. The station was the only station constructed with brick along the entire length of the Virginian's 608 miles (978 km) network. It was severely damaged by fire on January 29, 2001.
The first recorded rudimentary steam engine was the aeolipile mentioned by Vitruvius between 30 and 15 BC and, described by Heron of Alexandria in 1st-century Roman Egypt. Several steam-powered devices were later experimented with or proposed, such as Taqi al-Din's steam jack, a steam turbine in 16th-century Ottoman Egypt, and Thomas Savery's steam pump in 17th-century England. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine became the first commercially successful engine using the principle of the piston and cylinder, which was the fundamental type of steam engine used until the early 20th century. The steam engine was used to pump water out of coal mines.
Downtown is the central business district of Roanoke, Virginia, United States. Developed after the completion of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad in 1882, the Downtown core forms the geographic center of the city and the center of business for the Roanoke Valley and Southwest Virginia, the Roanoke City Market, the Roanoke Downtown Historic District and many other attractions and amenities.
The Arlington Pumping Station, built in 1907, is a historic water pumping station on Brattle Court in Arlington, Massachusetts. Its purpose was to provide water to Lexington and higher elevations in Arlington. The station was put in service on December 4, 1907.
South Roanoke is a neighborhood located in southeast Roanoke, Virginia, surrounded roughly by the Roanoke River to the north and Mill Mountain to the east, centered on Crystal Spring Avenue. It borders the neighborhoods of Southern Hills on the south, South Jefferson on the north, and Mill Mountain on the east and Franklin-Colonial on the west.
New Pump-House, also known as the Byrd Park Pump House, is a historic pumping station building located in Byrd Park, Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1881–1883, and is a three-part, "I" plan, Gothic Revival style granite building. A one-story, L-shaped annex was built in 1905. The building features a steeply pitched roof, projecting gables, Gothic arches, and lancet windows. Also on the property are the contributing Beaux Arts style 1924 Hydro Electric Pumping Station constructed of brick, concrete, and stucco and the 1881 Worthington Steam Pump Building, a one-story Italianate style pump house built of brick coated with stucco. The complex was built as the waterworks for the city of Richmond.
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It was built in 1891–1892, and is a Gothic style limestone church designed by Charles M. Burns of Philadelphia. The building is a nave-plan, clerestory-style church that includes a corner bell tower and a narthex and chapel in the rear. A Tudor Revival style parish house was constructed in 1923. The church's congregation is one of the city's oldest, and has included many prominent local, state, and national leaders. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
Norfolk and Western Railway Company Historic District is a national historic district located in Roanoke, Virginia. It encompasses three contributing buildings constructed by the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). They are the Neoclassical Revival style General Office Building–South ; the Art Deco period General Office Building–North (1931); and the Moderne style Passenger Station.
Benjamin Deyerle (1806–1883) was an architect, artist and brickmaker in Roanoke County, Virginia. Many of the historic homes, churches and public buildings in Roanoke were designed and built under his and his family's direction. He is credited with building 23 of them, and perhaps more. Some of these homes and buildings are currently listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.
Goulburn Pumping Station is a heritage-listed former municipal water supply system and now museum at Wollondilly River, Goulburn, Goulburn Mulwaree Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1885 to 1886. It includes the historic Appleby Steam Engine, which is contained in the pumping station.
The American Viscose Plant Historic District is an industrial park and historic district located in Roanoke, Virginia. The site is the location of the former American Viscose Corporation rayon processing plant that once employed over 5,000 and for a time was reportedly the largest rayon producing mill in the world. The plant's construction began in 1916 with the building of the first of what became three large processing plants of two spinning units each; the second began construction in 1921 and the third in 1925. With the plant's viability decreased by newer facilities elsewhere and rayon's usage supplanted by nylon and other synthetic fabrics, the factory closed in 1958. The property was purchased by an assortment of Roanoke investors in 1961 and has been operated as an industrial park since.
The Belmont Historic District is a historic district located in the southeast section of Roanoke, Virginia. It consists of an irregularly-shaped 214 acres (87 ha) of primarily residential housing located to the east of the city's downtown and south of the Roanoke Shops.
