I had someone send me some scans of side lever engine drawings (originals from 1840), and they were dreadful drawings, in dreadful condition.

I worked on this engine last year when I had more time, and made some good progress with making accurate 3D models of many of the parts.

The columns actually taper as they go up, like an ancient temple column, and so that was a challenge to get the flutes to act correctly.

Edited By PatJ on 03/05/2022 06:32:35

Edited By JasonB on 03/05/2022 07:35:07

Some of the drawings were missing, and some of the drawings had incorrect information on them, so I had to fill in the missing pieces (still working on that), and correct the things that were wrong.

The engine is from the Gunboat Mississippi, 1840, which had two of these engines, and sidewheels.

Luckily the Mississippi engine is very close to the Pacific engine, and designed by the same individual.

Edited By PatJ on 03/05/2022 06:56:21

The first engine I recall modeling in 3D a few years ago was a barstock build of my dad's, and I recall struggling to create 3D parts for this engine. At the time, these models seemed pretty complex and challenging.

With each engine that I modeled, I got better at modeling, and so you can see where things can go if you work at learning 3D.

That is the challenge; make something in 3D, no matter how simple, then increase the complexity with each part that you model. Each step mastered becomes another tool in your 3D modeling toolkit.

Before you know it, it is Beam Engine time !

An interesting backstory on this engine design is that it was designed by Charles Copeland, who was either a contractor, or worked for the US Navy.

In looking at the Mississippi drawings, I noticed an incredible gaffe, which was that the crank arms were drawn both facing the same direction. No competent engineering designer would ever make such an obvious blunder.

So I assumed that this must be Copeland's first attempt at a steam engine for a Naval vessel (I think this was the first steam powered Naval vessel design for the US), and I assumed (falsely) that this would also be Copeland's last engine design, since he clearly did not know what he was doing with the Mississippi design.

I found other errors in the Copeland drawings, and in general, they are good examples of very poor drafting and engineering design.

Further research indicated that Copeland went on to design other ship engines, apparently very successfully, and sophisticated designs, and so I guess it was a learning process for him.

And as a comparison, I found a set of French side-level engine drawings, also created in 1840, and the French drawings indicate a very refined and complete design, with exceptionally clear and concise drawings.

The Mississippi engines are so close the French design that I have to suspect that Copeland researched other engine designs, and basically copied them to the best of his ability (which was very poor ability).

I tend to forget how primitive engineering design and manufacturing was in the US in 1840.

England was king of the world as far as industrial design in the 1800's, although the French design from 1840 is very respectable. Charles Porter mentions in his book "Engineering Reminisces" that the only way to make a decent steam engine in the US was to order all of the tooling and measuring instruments from England.

To this day I still find and buy some superb products from England, such as a large paper cutter I bought recently.

Manufacturing seems to have vacated the US these days, but that is another story that we won't get into.

I am not up on architectural terms, but gothic seems to describe the Mississippi engine design well.

It is amazing how much effort went into the cosmetics of these old engines.

Later engine designs are devoid of these striking and remarkable visual features, and one has to lament that something has been lost over time.

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Edited By PatJ on 03/05/2022 22:43:04