Grasshopper Beam Engine

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

I recently added my congratulations to Mark Rea's thread concerning his first model – a Grasshopper Beam Engine.

In my post, I referred to the Grasshopper engine that originally powered the chain ferry across the River Itchen in Southampton.

It was my further intention to add a picture of that engine, I have one somewhere but, as of writing this, I can't find it! What I did find was a list of references to the Grasshopper Engine in the pages of Model Engineer. Here it is:

It was easier to add the list as a scan than to retype it in this post! There may be other references since 1958. If I can find the picture of the Southampton engine, I will add it to this thread.

I've chosen to start a new thread rather than adding to Mark's thread in the hope that it will be easier for the search function to find the information.

Mark refers to his engine as 'Elmer's Grasshopper'; most of the references I have are to the 'Easton-Amos Grasshopper'. Comments welcome.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The "Elmer's" comes from the name of the guy who designed the model along with about 50 others and put the designs into a book. These designs have been about on the web for a long time now so make popular beginners engines

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

I've just had a bit of a search in the hope of finding some more information concerning the engine to which I referred.

Here's one reference:

**LINK**

Scroll down to the 'SU' section.

I also discovered that what I described as a 'chain ferry' is alternatively described as a 'floating bridge'. The eastern end of the one I labelled as 'Southampton' was at Woolston, next to the now removed Vosper Thornycroft works.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 19/07/2022 10:54:41

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