Service of the Smethwick Engine

Background. Boulton and Watt was formed around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between manufacturer Matthew Boulton and Scottish engineer James Watt, established to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. The firm designed and made stationary steam engines and played a major role in the Industrial Revolution.

Service and Function. The Smethwick Engine, a Watt steam engine manufactured by Boulton and Watt in 1779, was installed near Birmingham and brought into service in May 1779. It was one of two steam engines pumping water back up to the 491-foot (149.7 m) summit level of the BCN Old Main Line canal at Smethwick, not far from the Soho Foundry where it was made.

Later History. A second Boulton and Watt engine was added alongside the 1779 engine in 1804, and Thomas Telford later built the Engine Arm Aqueduct so coal could still reach the Smethwick Engine. Deemed uneconomic to repair, it was replaced in 1892 and removed for preservation in 1897–98, eventually reaching Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, where it is the oldest working steam engine in the world.