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W.H. Pool & Sons (Manufacturer)

This is a simple oscillating steam engine made up of an assortment of parts. It was made by W. H. Pool & Sons in Chipstable, Somerset, although some of the parts may have been made by other firms in the Somerset-Devon area. The engine was purchased by the donor at an auction of the estate of Alfred J. Pool on his death in 1957.

1 engine: metal

‘More on Pool Engines’ by Geoff Bryant, in ‘Stationary Engine’ Nov. 1979, p.6 – ‘The firm of W. H. Pool & Sons was started in 1847 as wheelwrights in the village of Chipstable, four miles or so from Wiveliscombe in Somerset. The two brothers Alfred and William joined their father when they left school, to make threshers, hayrakes, etc., in fact all sorts of farm machinery. They started experiments with engines in the late 1890’s and by the turn of the century were making engines from 1 to 14 h.p. It appears that 200 engines were produced, the castings to Pool’s patterns were made by ‘Gunns Iron Foundry’ of Tiverton in Devon, and ‘Easton & Johnsons Foundry’ in Taunton. The skew gears were rough cast by the ‘Blackstone Company’, but all brass work – big end and main bearings being cast at Chipstable by the Pool Brothers and workers, and all castings were also machined and finished by them. // … // Alfred Pool died in 1957 at the age of 93, his brother died some years before. There was a sale of their effects and one scrap merchant bought 57 tons of scrap. The engines, including the first one they built were sold for £6 each and broker up on site.’, The engine was loaned to the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at the University of Reading August 1970-January 1976, where it was used as a teaching aid., Letter from MERL to Prof. W. E. Minchinton, 19 February 1965 – ‘He [Alfred J. Pool] was a general engineer at Chipstable in North Devon and he also was quite active in taking photographs between 1880 and 1900. His forebears had been craftsmen in the village. His father died in 1907 at the age of 90 and one gathers that the family did everything from wheel-wrighting to coffin making. It also appears that his grandfather and grandmother kept a shop in the village where they sold groceries and draperies, which was carried on until 1946 by Mr. Poole’s sister.’

Chipstable