Murray's Hypocycloidal Engine

Murray's Hypocycloidal Engine, now in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, England, was made around 1805^[1] and is the world's third-oldest working steam engine^[2] and the oldest working engine with a Tusi couple hypocycloidal straight line mechanism.^[a]

Murray's Hypocycloidal Engine
The engine at Thinktank
Origins
Type	Hypocycloidal
Designer	Matthew Murray
Maker	Fenton, Murray and Wood
Date	1805 (1805)
Country of origin	England
Former operator	1805 (1805) – 1931 (1931): John Bradley & Co, Stourbridge 1931 (1931) – 1961 (1961): N. Hingley & Sons Ltd, Netherton
Measurements
Cylinders	1
Preservation
Collection	Birmingham Museums Trust
Location	Thinktank, Digbeth, Birmingham, England
Accession no.	1961S01437.00001

The engine in motion

History

Designed by Matthew Murray, and made by Fenton, Murray and Wood of Holbeck, Leeds, it is one of only two of the type to survive;^[3] the other is located at The Henry Ford, Michigan, United States.^[4]

The single-cylinder engine was used by John Bradley & Co of Stourbridge from 1805 until 1931, and by N. Hingley & Sons Ltd of Netherton from 1931 until 1961, when it was acquired by Birmingham City Council for their science museum.^[5]

Murray patented the hypocycloidal arrangement in 1802.^[3]

See also

• Birmingham Museums Trust
• Rotative beam engine
• Smethwick Engine – the oldest working engine in the world, also at Thinktank
• Sun and planet gear
• Whitbread Engine – the second-oldest working engine; one of the first rotative steam engines

Notes

1. The oldest working engine, the Smethwick Engine, and the second oldest, the Whitbread Engine, are beam engines, and neither uses a hypocycloidal straight line mechanism.