HYDRAULIC POWER

See Also: ELECTRICITY; MENU

The Air Loom

In 1797 James Tilly Matthews declared that Britain was being controlled by the Air Loom, a machine that was powered by (horse-derived) pressurised gases, pneumatic chemistry and strange mesmeric fluids. He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and placed in Bedlam

Location: Liverpool Street Railway Station, Liverpool Street, EC2M 7PY. The supposed site of the Air Loom. (red, pink)

Dock Cranes

In 1852 hydraulic cranes were installed at Limehouse Basin. Until then it had taken a week to unload a single collier. A 54ft.-tall, octagonal tower (1869) was built on the north side of the Basin to house an accumulator.

Location: Limehouse Basin, E14 7JZ

Kirkcaldy Testing Museum

David Kirkcaldy has an 1864 hydraulic system. It was used to test the strength of steel beams. It still exists in situ.

Location: 99 Southwark Street, SE1 0JF (orange, red)

Website: www.testingmuseum.org.uk

Lifts

The Langham Hotel was the first hotel in London to have a lift. It was hydraulically-powered.

Location: The Langham Hotel, 1c Portland Place, W1B 1JA (blue, white)

London Hydraulic Power Company

London Hydraulic Power Company (1883) - there had been an earlier venture ten years earlier - pumped highly compressed water around London. This powered lifts in the City of London. It told its customers that it could deliver 700 lbs. per sq. in.. The pumping station (1890) was in Wapping (now an art gallery). The Company s system developed in 186 miles of pipes.

Location: 25 Wapping Wall, E1W 3SF (red, grey)

Falcon Wharf Pumping Station, Holland Street, c.SE1 9JH. Gone.

Website: https://thewappingproject.org (The Wapping Project)

The Midland Grand Hotel

The Midland Grand Hotel's water was compressed by the trains gently accelerating into oversized buffers in St Pancras Railway Station

Location: Euston Road, NW1 2AR. (Now the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel.) (blue, red)

St Pancras Railway Station, Euston Road, N1C 4QP (blue, turquoise)

Piped Poo

The Shone Hydro-Pneumatic system used compressed air to remove human waste. A system was installed in the Palace of Westminster by the end of the 19^thC. It had an advantage when it was installed in places where there was insufficient local incline for water to flow away. Its relative complexity led to few sanitary engineers embracing it, therefore, it was not taken up.

Location: The Palace of Westminster, SW1A 0AA (purple, blue)

See Also: LAVATORIES; SEWAGE

Pneumatic Tubes

Pneumatic pipes furnished local livery systems that complemented telegraphic networks. The first one started operating in London in 1853.

The Thames Barrier

The gates of the Thames Barrier are operated by hydraulic power.

Location: Eastmoor Street, SE7 8LX

Website: www.gov.uk/guidance/the-thames-barrier

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge was powered by compressed water.

Location: The River Thames, SE1 2UP (purple, blue)

David Backhouse 2024