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Whitbread Engine

1780s in London1785 in England1785 in scienceCollections of the Powerhouse MuseumHistory of the steam engine
Industrial RevolutionJames WattPreserved beam enginesPreserved stationary steam enginesWhitbread
Boulton & Watt steam engine, Sydney Powerhouse Museum, 2014 (15240699214)
Boulton & Watt steam engine, Sydney Powerhouse Museum, 2014 (15240699214)

The Whitbread Engine preserved in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, built in 1785, is one of the first rotative steam engines ever built, and is the oldest surviving. A rotative engine is a type of beam engine where the reciprocating motion of the beam is converted to rotary motion, producing a continuous power source suitable for driving machinery. This engine was designed by the mechanical engineer James Watt, manufactured for the firm Boulton and Watt and originally installed in the Whitbread brewery in London, England. On decommissioning in 1887 it was sent to Australia's Powerhouse Museum (then known as the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum) and has since been restored to full working order.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Whitbread Engine (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Whitbread Engine
Harris Street, Sydney Ultimo

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N -33.877898 ° E 151.199573 °
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Museum of Applied Arts and Science

Harris Street
2007 Sydney, Ultimo
New South Wales, Australia
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Boulton & Watt steam engine, Sydney Powerhouse Museum, 2014 (15240699214)
Boulton & Watt steam engine, Sydney Powerhouse Museum, 2014 (15240699214)
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Powerhouse Museum
Powerhouse Museum

The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. Although often described as a science museum, the Powerhouse has a diverse collection encompassing all sorts of technology including decorative arts, science, communication, transport, costume, furniture, media, computer technology, space technology and steam engines. The Museum has existed in various guises for over 125 years, previously named the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum of New South Wales (1879–1882) and the Technological Museum (August 1893 – March 1988). As of 2022, the collection contains over 500,000 objects collected over the last 135 years, many of which are displayed or housed at the site it has occupied since 1988, and for which it is named – a converted electric tram power station in the Inner West suburb of Ultimo, originally constructed in 1902 and is a well-known and popular Sydney tourist destination. The Federation-style building is listed on the New South Wales Government's State Heritage Register.The current building, designed by Lionel Glendenning for the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, won the Sir John Sulman Medal for architecture. It includes a specially installed reticulated steam system, run from the old boiler house, to drive the large, rare steam machines in its collection.