>JD> walking beam engines, used to pump water from coal mines in England. No
 >JD> crankshaft or other rotating nonsense. :-)
 > 
 > Thanks for the reminder. Then there was the "man machine" which had 
 > a vertical
 > "piston rod" longer than 100 feet. The rod passed vertically down 
 > the pit
 > shaft, with step brackets at intervals. The miners would ride it to 
 > and from
 > the gallery they worked in, stepping on and off at top dead centre 
 > and at
 > bottom dead centre, waiting briefly at each gallery for the rod to 
 > make one
 > pass, then step on it for transit to another gallery, and another, 
Those did use crankshafts and were introduced much later than the engines I 
was talking about. They used 'em in coal mines, and the copper mines in 
Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
--- FLAME v1.1
---------------