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Main Category
Sub Category
Era
Date Created
Location Country
us
Coordinates
39.96329, -76.724764
Address1
York Water Company
Address2
130 East Market Street
City
York
State
Country
Zip

Smaller and cheaper than a triple-expansion vertical engine, the horizontal cross-compound pumping engine, Pump No. 2, ran at relatively slow revolutions and was considered the height of engineering from the 1890s to World War I. This pumping engine at the York Water Company was built by the Worthington Pump & Machinery Corporation, Snow-Holly Works, Buffalo, New York. Corliss steam engines, characterized by four cylindrical oscillating valves, each separately controlled by cut-off gear (1849), drove many types of machinery and enjoyed great commercial success throughout the world well into the twentieth century. The highly efficient steam distribution system was conceived by George H. Corliss (1817-1888) of Providence, Rhode Island. Designated by the ASME Susquehanna Section.

Corliss-driven pump, typical of early 20th-century US practice

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