To fully understand Wrexham’s Steam Age contribution, we must start a little further afield than Wrexham. As chance has it, this year during the summer holidays, I visited Dudley with my family and in particular, the Black Country Living Museum. Near the entrance is a replica of the world’s first steam engine. Originally built by Thomas Newcomen (less than a mile away from the museum), it was designed to drain water from a coal mine. Although Thomas Savery had patented a steam pump in 1698 for the draining of mines, his design used no moving parts and forced water upward. This had practical limitations and restricted use underground.

Thomas Newcomen took a piston and cylinder design with a leather ring as a seal. Rather than powering the piston with steam pressure, Newcomen’s design relied on the cooling effect on the steam to pull the piston by a vacuum effect. This method of power creation came to be known as an atmospheric engine. Placed above the ground in an engine house, it utilises the ready supply of coal. Newcomen (as an ironmonger) made the atmospheric engine a commercial success but, the design was largely attributed to Denis Papin who published his idea in 1690.

Although it was a step toward mechanisation, the atmospheric engine was jerky, inefficient and constantly lost heat and power. The seal between the piston and cylinder was incredibly wasteful. In 1769, the steam engine design was improved by James Watt. He added an external condenser and introduced a double-acting cylinder. The piston could now utilise a power-stroke rather than a vacuum-stroke. In 1775 Watt partnered with Matthew Boulton to develop industrial machines. Together they used gears and converted the linear movement of the power stroke into a circular motion which could provide rotary power. The engine became increasingly efficient but, Watt could not produce a bored cylinder to prevent leakage around the piston.

In 1774, John Wilkinson brought a major change to the steam engine. With the invention of his boring machine, Wilkinson took a drilled hole and increased its size with a precision cutting tool. No longer did the cylinder need to be rough and inaccurate. It could be cylindrically precise through boring it out. This improved efficiency and a reduction in size. Watt and Boulton’s steam engines could now operate in new environments too: From mines to factories to mills to trains. This change was significant enough to help facilitate the industrial revolution. It changed the world in a way humanity had never witnessed before.

Through his involvement in cannons, John Wilkinson perfected the machine powered boring process. In 1773, Matthew Boulton introduced him to James Watt and in 1775 Watt took delivery of precision bored cylinders from the Bersham Ironworks. In 1776 Watt and Boulton installed a new steam engine at Wilkinson’s Bradley blast furnace. On the back of its success, Boulton and Watt proposed all of their steam engines be equipped with cylinders from Bersham. This secured Wrexham’s Steam Age Contribution and Wilkinson’s purchase of the Brymbo estate.