Type X Bessemer Building
- Company: Bessemer Gas Engine Co., Grove City, PA
- Year: 1927
- Horsepower: 80
- Serial Number: 35879
- Bore: 14-inch
- Stroke: 20-inch
- Owner: Coolspring Power Museum
Bessemer Gas Engine Co. was founded in 1899. It soon grew with sales of thousands of engines, as well as many other kinds of pumping and producing machinery, to the booming oil industry.
Features
The engine is a 2-cycle combination compressor engine on a combined frame; power cylinder on one end with a compressor on the other. The engine has one 7-foot flywheel mounted to one side.
This engine compressor combination was used to provide compressed air to power the many steam engines that pumped oil wells on the oil lease where the Bessemer was located. This was a modern day (1910-1920s) alternative to operating an expensive boiler for the decreasing production of wells that were drilled in the 1880s and 1890s.
History
This engine was bought by F.J. Mosier in July 1927. It was shipped to his oil lease near James City, Pennsylvania, within a couple of miles of the original location of the Museum’s Windy City display.
Originally published in the April/May 2023 issue of Gas Engine Magazine.
