Sunday 1 January 2012

Monumental Engineering

We took an afternoon out on the first day of 2012, and here are a couple of photos.



What I love about this is that this could be a church pretty much anywhere, but it isn't. This is the engine hall at the Kew Waterworks, now a museum, where the largest working engine of its type is still put through its paces a few times a year. What I particularly like is that it has been built with such love (my sons say 'over-engineered') with fluting on the columns and the 40 ton weight, together with bright, polished finishing which makes the steam pipes and levers look like a church organ. There might have been lots wrong with the Victorian way of doing things, but they built things beautifully.

1 comment:

JoeinVegas said...

I too like the big old mechanical systems, nice to see that some of them keep working.