Last of the giants

The paper looks at the life and times of the Cornish beam engine a magnificent example of Victorian engineering that helped transform 19th century Cornwall into the mining capital of the world. Viewed on a grey winter´s day, the red brick and granite buildings of the East Pool Mine in Cornwall have the melancholy charm befitting an industrial leviathan, incongruously beached alongside a supermarket car park. Cornish beam engines came in a number of standard sizes, and the engine at Taylor´s Shaft at East Pool was a top-of-the-range model with a 90in diameter cylinder.