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Announcing IEEC4 at Bristol in 2026
The Fourth International Early Engines Conference (IEEC4), Kingswood Heritage Museum, Bristol. 20th-22nd March 2026 Conference Details and Call for Papers Following our previous successful conferences, we are delighted to confirm our fourth event, (IEEC4) will be hosted by the Kingswood Heritage Museum in Warmley, near Bristol in South Gloucestershire, from 20-22 March 2026. DATES, TIMES AND VISITS? The event will run from noon Friday 20th until noon on Sunday 22nd March 2026 and it is our intention to arrange group visits to a number of surviving Newcomen Engine Houses on Thursday 19th March and to other significant stationary engine sites on Monday 23rd March. Please note these visits are not…
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James Twyford – Mechanical mysteries
At the 3rd International Early Engines Conference at Summerlee in 2024, Steve Grudgings introduced an exciting 17th century archive of drawings containing examples of mechanical devices, including practical applications of water engines and examples of engineering practices from around the UK and parts of Europe. Contained in the fabulous journals of James Twyford (d.1721) described as “the most energetic and enlightened mining adventurer in the Somerset of the later Stuarts” (John Bulley Vol.97 (1952) of Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society) Watch Steve Grudgings’ introduction to the material: The IEEC audience and wider public are invited to interpret and explain the service in what it is hoped will be an…
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Research Snippets – On Brass cylinders
Dr John Kanefsky writes: In my paper to IEEC2 on the Norris Files, I referred briefly to the paucity of evidence about brass cylinders for Newcomen engines [Kanefsky (2021), Coalbrookdale, Cornwall and Cylinders, pp.6-7 – see also early access version]. However, an advertisement in the Newcastle Courant for 3rd April 1725 sheds a little light. In it, a Mr William Packer of Bristol who has relocated to Newcastle offers to cast, among a wide variety of other items, “all Sorts of Brass-work for Fire-Engines for the Coal Works”. Little is known about Packer. From a brief search on the internet it appears he as active as a bell-founder and supplier…
