Stationary steam engine

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 motor vehicles, agricultural engines used for ploughing or threshing, and marine engines.

There are different patterns of stationary steam engines

• Beam engine
• Table engine
• Horizontal engine
• Vertical engine
• Inclined engine
• High speed engine

They were introduced during the eighteenth century and widely made for the whole of the nineteenth century and most of the first half of the twentieth century, only declining as electricity supply and the internal combustion engine became more widespread.

References

Buchanan, R. A., and Watkins, George, The Industrial Archaeology of the Stationary Steam Engine, London, 1976, ISBN 0713906049