Resolution (beam engine)

Coalbrookdale was a cradle of the First Industrial Revolution and was the scene of Abraham Darby's first production of iron by a coke-fired blast furnace, rather than the previous and expensive charcoal.

Coalbrookdale is a narrow steep-sided valley that offered useful water power to drive the furnace blast and the various stamp mills, boring engines, etc.

[4] These provided a reserve of water to cover short periods of low rainfall, but could not supply an entire summer.

From 1735, the Coalbrookdale Company under Abraham Darby II attempted to reduce their dependency upon seasonal water supply by a series of water-returning engines.

These engines did not drive the ironworks machinery directly, but pumped water from the lower to upper ponds to recycle it.

At each end it was fitted with an iron-shod wooden arch head, with the engine's force transmitted by a pair of chains.

The beam is of an amazing strength being compos’d of 8 large oak trees, …which is supported by a strong cast Metal Gudgeon or pivot…The water pump had two cylinders of 26-inch diameter.

This could lift water from an appreciable depth, developed for the needs of Cornish tin mining, but they had only low delivery pressure at the top of the shaft.

[5] This tunnel was just one of a number of culverts, sluices and similar works built at the Coalbrookdale site around this time.