An Empirical History of Tangye Horizontal Engines

For the first one and half of our trips to Burma, we were simply amazed at the variety of Tangye engines we saw and wondered how we might ever make sense of them, particularly the lettering which at first sight appears to have a significant random factor built in, I am almost certain that they were added to the basic casting individually. Once Yuehong had spotted where the serial numbers were applied, life became significantly easier, but still there are many questions left unanswered. We have since revisited a number of mills with Tangyes and we now have a register of over 50 serial numbers, there are many more to check as can be seen from the pictures below, but alas some engines appear to be unnumbered and I think they may have been deliberately eased when engines were sold second hand from the UK to Burma. I believe that many Tangye records do exist in the care of the local authority for the Birmingham area but they are inaccessible and are likely to stay that way.

From early days, we learned that the presence of a raised "+" on the valve chest cover was a good indicator of a Tangye product in the absence of anything else as can be seen in a number of the pictures that follow, but often on earlier engines such a feature is absent, whether this is is because it was a later feature or because new ones have been fitted I do not know. A few Tangyes have their own governors but often these have been replaced by Pickering type ones. Unlike Marshall of Gainsborough who preferred to build right hand engines by default, Tangyes are almost equally left and right handed - stand next to the fly wheel and look which side of you the cylinder is.

Finally, please remember that almost everything which I have written below is (intelligent) guesswork. A few people have offered advice but if you can contribute, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me, see below for the kind of information which is needed. Some of these pictures necessarily appear elsewhere on this site and unless otherwise stated the engines shown are in Burma.

Using the basic criteria above this is probably an unnumbered Tangye ("+" and Tangye governor) and if it is then it is probably one of the oldest, nothing like it appears in the old 19th century catalogues (1876 and 1891) distributed by Phoenix Publications http://oldenginehouse.users.btopenworld.com/cd.htm.

Turning to the numbered engines, the smallest number we have seen is #519 on this "Colonial Engine", currently somewhere between Burma and China, unfortunately it seems to have lost its original U-crank.

At about the same time, Tangye were building their 'Soho Engine', this is #1107, like that above it will be on its way to China in due course. Click here for more pictures of this engine.

According to the 1876 catalogue, what was to evolve into the standard Tangye Girder engine was introduced in 1869. Characteristically, they bear the term "Tangye's Patent" - sometimes "Tangyes' Patent" instead - often the word "Birmingham" underneath with "E size" or similar underneath. Basically this indicated the cylinder diameter according to the table below (data from the catalogue), the stroke being twice the cylinder diameter:

The oldest engine of this type, #1410, is also the biggest, K size. For some reason the "Birmingham" has been ground off.

This a later H Size, #4248, like the Soho engine #1107 above it carries the medallion commemorating Tangye's Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1878:

At some stage the inscription was changed to drop the reference to the patent and explicitly state the engine size, this is H size, #6976:

This is a very large engine with only the actual measurements (14½" x 28") but no letter size, we do not have a number for this yet:

Not long after, the size is no longer stated at all, this is #8029, about 10" in size, it appears to have once been a Tangye-Johnson engine (see below):

The second eccentric necessary for the Tangye-Johnson system has been removed which may account for the unusual pair of valve chest covers.

Later engines were similar, but the "s" is then dropped (this engine is 10757 or 10842, I forget which) at Rejosari sugar mill in Java.

This is a 12" version of the same engine, it also has a specification plate similar to the one shown below (12" x 24", 100 psi, 85 rpm), we don't have a number for this engine yet:

At about this time, Tangye introduced what (for me at least) was their ultimate design, the girder engine, of which there are many examples, this is a fine 10" engine, #12280:

This is another 10" engine, #12387, almost the highest number (that is #12389) we have recorded so far. This seems to have been the most popular size among the later engines in Burma.

Just to confuse everyone, this 'modern girder type' 12" has the 'wrong wording"! It needs a revisit to establish the serial number, unfortunately it is in my least favoured district of Irrawaddy Division...

Like most manufacturers, Tangye occasionally 'forgot' to badge their engines, this is #12075, stored ready for eventual re-use:

Agents and makers were both promiscuous, other Tangyes carry plates from Jessops (Rangoon) and Cowie (Glasgow, with Rangoon branch), other Hosain Hamadanee and Cowie engines are obviously not Tangyes....

All the engines shown above have a single eccentric. Some time between 1876 and 1891 Tangye began to offer engines with the Tangye-Johnson automatic cut off system (with twin eccentrics), they are normally easily identified by the 'bulge' on the valve chest cover even though in every case bar two, like #8029 above, so far they have been 'simplified'. So we were delighted to find this intact engine in the Shwebo area in 2007, and, to boot, it is an early engine, J size, #2740. On the other hand the noise it made suggested that the automatic cut off at best needed tuning and at worst needing removal:

On the other hand, at the other end of the age range, #12386, we were unaware of its significance when this engine was only the second one we saw working on our first bash:

The 'Tangye Birmingham' on the crosshead guide is clearly visible. This engine also carries an unnumbered Cowie agents plate.

I would be very glad to receive comments and corrections. Particularly, I am trying to correlate serial numbers with delivery dates which is best achieved by comparison with preserved engines of known provenance. That is, unfortunately, a very short list! I have had suggested:

745	1880
4376	1883
5123	1885
10453	1896

I have always thought that it would be relatively simple to establish when Tangye built their last steam engine and what its serial number was. Maybe it's not that simple, because the company also built oil engines. Were they numbered in the same series? I don't even know if they numbered steam pumps at all and, if so, whether they too were in the same series? Having seen more working Tangyes than probably anyone else on the planet, I suppose it makes me some kind of expert, but surely there must be a few people out there who can help.

Kawkapun Rice Mill (2005) - Appropriate technology taken to its limits. The account includes a mill diagram / flow chart of the milling process.

Dakhondaing Rice Mill (2005) - A classic mill, unspoiled by progress. The account includes a description of the basic milling process as well as gratuitous insults to armchair enthusiasts....

B	C	D	E	G	H	I	J	K	M
4"	5"	6"	8"	10"	11"	12"	13"	14"	16"