IEEC3.1 12 The Boulton & Watt Rotative Engine For John Stein’s Whisky Distillery Kennet Pans, Clackmannanshire 1786 -1825

The Boulton & Watt Rotative Engine

For John Stein’s Whisky Distillery

Kennet Pans, Clackmannanshire 1786 -1825

William Kay Whitehead

An off-print from

Transactions of the 3rd International Early Engines Conference - Volume 1 pp273-289

Summary

In August 1784, Henry Goodwyn succeeded in being the first brewer in London to have a B&W rotative engine at work. Soon several other London brewers had replaced their horses and water wheels with similar steam engines. Sam Davey Liptrap of the Whitechapel Distillery thought such engines would be underpowered for grinding corn, but when he saw the performance of Goodwyn’s engine in November 1785, he began to change his mind. Liptrap was still uncertain of engine size in terms of horsepower, since he only used a waterwheel to grind corn. He left this for Watt to decide.

At the same time, John Stein, the biggest distiller in Scotland was shipping large volumes of his spirit to London, from where his agents could easily inform him of the latest technical developments. It was in Stein’s nature to want such an engine before anyone else in Scotland. He knew that in August 1786, James Watt would be in London, at the Albion Mill, so that is where a request was sent.

It was also in Watt’s nature to ignore such letters until he was less occupied. Returning to Birmingham, there follow lengthy discussions over several months before a final order was placed for the engine. Letters from Birmingham would arrive in London the next day, but would take at least a week to reach Kennet Pans. This led to a complexity of crossed letters.

In November 1786, James Watt and Matthew Bolton departed for a lengthy visit to Paris, leaving John Southern, Watt’s assistant, in charge. Eventually, after having replaced the original order with one for a more powerful engine, it was working in June 1787.

Relations between the Scottish distillers and London forced Stein out of business and he was declared bankrupt in 1789. By 1795, there was a revival of distilling and James Watt Junior succeeded in extracting some of the money still owing since 1787. A second mill and engine were built at the beginning of the 19th century, and then, unaccountably, the name of Stein vanished from the story of Scotch Whisky.