Pump up the Jam

Call me weird, but I actually looked up Victorian Pumping Stations on Google on Friday night, since we had been to Claymills Pumping Station and Mill Meece Pumping Station and they were both interesting to go to. So, what could be better than seeing another one?

Papplewick Pumping Station was the target and it was quite interesting. Covering Nottingham, it’s very similar to Mill Meece in that it pumped water for the nearest conurbation, with Papplewick serving Nottingham. Claymills Pumping Station is a little different as it pumped sewage.

The interesting thing about the pump at Papplewick is that it used James Watt’s idea of using water to condense the steam in the cylinder to cause it to condense and pull the piston down. So essentially expanding steam pushed the piston up, and cooling the steam down caused the steam to contact and pull the piston down. Despite this, it’s not his most favorite invention was his parallel linkage, but I’m not buying that. I think the condensing engine was pretty impressive.

One thing that I did learn from this weekend was that Ada Lovelace, known to all as the first computer programmer, was not actually called Ada Lovelace. The daughter or Lord Byron, her mathematical ability led her to have a long working relationship with Charles Babbage. The surprising thing for me is that he name was Augusta Ada Byron, or Augusta Ada King after marriage, and the Lovelace part is because she was the Countess of Lovelace, which is something I never knew, nor would many people who know the name Ada Lovelace.

However I would bet many of them would know that a language was named after her that was both really revolutionary and ghastly. Yes I learnt the language of Ada, so I know the highs and lows of the language.

Anyway, back to the image, I sort of got lost there. The pillars are so impressive. I think this is the most impressive pumping station we have been to. The pillars have metal decorations of fish on them, all unique. You can’t see the fish from this angle as they are on the side of the pillars. The other pumping stations were still ornate, but this was something else.