Yates & Thom Ltd, or Yates of Blackburn, was a British manufacturer of stationary steam engines and boilers at the Canal Ironworks, Blackburn, Lancashire, England.
The company had its origins in a blacksmith's shop started by William Yates in 1824. [1]
In the 1860s, the company supplied a cam operated, drop valve compound engine operating at 100 psi to the India Mill, Darwen. [2] Other mills supplied by Yates and Thom included the Durban Mill, Oldham. This was an 1800 hp triple-expansion four-cylinder engine built in 1906. It had a 24" HP cylinder, a 29" IP cylinder and two 38" LP cylinders with a 5 ft 6 in stroke. At 180 psi, it drove a 27-ft, 67-ton flywheel with 38 ropes at 65 rpm. It used Corliss valves on all cylinders. [3] An engine, one of a pair supplied by the firm, survives at Leigh Spinners. [4]
The company supplied a 3,300 horsepower twin tandem compound engine, which survives in the engine house at the Astley Green Colliery Museum. It was the largest steam winding engine used on the Lancashire Coalfield. [5]
In 1928, the company became Foster, Yates and Thom when it was acquired by Joseph Foster & Sons. [6] The company continued to manufacture boilers until 1964, with the remainder of the works closing in 1973. [1]
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars, agricultural engines used for ploughing or threshing, marine engines, and the steam turbines used as the mechanism of power generation for most nuclear power plants.
A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) cylinder, then having given up heat and losing pressure, it exhausts directly into one or more larger-volume low-pressure (LP) cylinders. Multiple-expansion engines employ additional cylinders, of progressively lower pressure, to extract further energy from the steam.
The Astley Green Colliery Museum is a museum run by the Red Rose Steam Society in Astley near Tyldesley in Greater Manchester, England. Before becoming a museum, the site was a working colliery that produced coal from 1912 to 1970; it is now protected as a Scheduled Monument. The museum occupies a 15-acre (6 ha) site by the Bridgewater Canal which has the only surviving pit headgear and engine house on the Lancashire Coalfield.
Haigh Foundry was an ironworks and foundry in Haigh, Lancashire, which was notable for the manufacture of early steam locomotives.
Rock Mill was cotton spinning mill in the Waterloo district of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1891 and 1893 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. Rock Mill was built on the site of Wilshaw Mill retaining and using the octagonal chimney. It ceased spinning cotton in the 1960s and was demolished in 1971; the site became the location for the town's first Asda supermarket, which opened in 1972, until Asda relocated to a much larger new store site in Cavendish Street in 1989.
Texas Mill was a cotton spinning mill in the Whitelands district of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1905 and 1907 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. It was destroyed in a massive fire on 22–23 October 1971. It had been re-equipped as a ring mill for spinning artificial fibres when it was destroyed.
Cedar Mill was a cotton spinning mill in the Hurst area of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1903 and 1905 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. It was the last mill in Ashton spinning cotton. It ceased in 1980. It was demolished and the land was used for housing.
George Saxon & Co was an English engineering company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was based in the Openshaw district of Manchester. The company produced large steam-driven engines for power stations and later for textile mills in Lancashire and elsewhere.
Woolstenhulmes & Rye was a company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was based in Oldham, Lancashire, England. The company produced large steam-driven engines for textile mills in Oldham and elsewhere.
Urmson & Thompson was a company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was based in Oldham, Lancashire, England. The company were general millwrights, also producing some steam engines during the 19th century and after 1904 produced large steam-driven engines for textile mills in Oldham.
Mavis Mill was a cotton spinning mill in Coppull, Chorley, Lancashire
Saxon Mill, Droylsden was a cotton spinning mill in Droylsden, Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in the 1907, taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production finished in 1967, and the mill was demolished in 1995.
Stalybridge Mill, Stalybridge is a cotton spinning mill in Stalybridge, Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1868, and the engine reconfigured in around 1925. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964.
Carels Frères, or Carels Brothers, was a manufacturer of stationary steam engines in Ghent, Belgium. For instance, in 1909, they supplied a 1200 hp tandem compound engine with super heater to Moston Mill, a cotton mill in Moston, North Manchester. It was their works no 875, with cylinders 30 and 53 in bore with a 3 ft 11+1⁄4 in (1,200 mm) stroke. Developing 1,200 hp (890 kW) at 90 rpm, superheated steam 200 psi (1,379 kPa) was supplied by Tetlow boilers. The flywheel, 19 ft (5,791 mm) in diameter, was provided with the sixty rope grooves that the full power would have required. The second half of the mill, however, was never completed, and in 1958 electric drives were installed, and the engine was scrapped.
John Musgrave & Sons was a company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was founded in 1839 by John Musgrave and his son, Joseph, at the Globe Ironworks, in Bolton, historically in Lancashire, England.
Alexander Petrie and Co was a company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester in England. The company did general millwrighting, producing some steam engines during the 19th century. Around 1845, their superintendent, William McNaught, was producing large steam-driven beam engines for textile mills in Rochdale.
J & E Wood was a company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was based in the Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. The company produced large steam-driven engines for textile mills in Lancashire and elsewhere.
Ellenroad Mill was a cotton spinning mill in Newhey, a village in the Milnrow area of Rochdale, England. It was built as a mule spinning mill in 1890 by Stott and Sons and extended in 1899. It was destroyed by fire on 19 January 1916. When it was rebuilt, it was designed and equipped as a ring spinning mill.
Queen Street Mill is a former weaving mill in Harle Syke, a suburb to the north-east of Burnley, Lancashire, that is a Grade I listed building. It now operates as a museum and cafe. Currently open for public tours between April and November. Over winter the café is opened on Wednesdays. It is also viewable with private bookings.
Bancroft Shed was a weaving shed in Barnoldswick, Lancashire, England, situated on the road to Skipton. Construction was started in 1914 and the shed was commissioned in 1920 for James Nutter & Sons Limited. The mill closed on 22 December 1978 and was demolished. The engine house, chimneys and boilers have been preserved and maintained as a working steam museum. The mill was the last steam-driven weaving shed to be constructed and the last to close.
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