Wheal Virgin St. Hilary, 1782

Cornish Mine Engines (3 items).

1298b. Wheal Virgin St. Hilary. Mar. 1782. 3 items.
Single-acting engine, with 30 inch cylinder, 8 foot stroke, chain connection, unequal beam. Engine formerly belonged to Chacewater (Wheal Busy) and Scorrier.

General view of the engine, outside front view of the engine house and longitudinal and cross-sections of the boiler, ground plan of the engine and boiler.

Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 28. Catalogue of Old Engines p. 300.

For Wheal Virgin St. Hilary. The drawings refer to the mine as "Wheal Virgin in the West", presumably to distinguish it from the Wheal Virgin that was part of Consolidated Mines. This engine was the first engine erected in Cornwall, at Chacewater (Wheal Busy). It moved from Chacewater to Scorrier Mine, where it worked from Oct. 1778 to Sep. 1782 before moving to Wheal Virgin St. Hilary where it worked from Dec. 1782 to Jul. 1785. Between Apr. 1786 and Jul. 1787 it worked at Crane Mine, before being sold to the United Mines, who worked it at Poldory between Dec. 1791 and Dec. 1794. In 1797 it was bought by Wheal Susan, where it was still working in May 1798.
These drawings were originally kept in Book 28, noted by Southern as "Drawings made in Cornwall". Henry Hazleton presumably confused these with drawing for the West Wheal Virgin engine [see Portfolio 5/1298a above] and thus placed the two sets of drawings together.