6inch HAYWARD TYLER PUMPING ENGINE

6inch HAYWARD TYLER PUMPING ENGINE

6.5 litre swept volume alpha type Stirling cycle hot air engine

Hayward Tyler were English licensees for the Rider patent air engine developed in 1875 by Alexander Rider, an Irish born engineer working in New York.  

Rider’s alpha type 107 degree phase double piston engine was the most successful innovation in closed cycle Stirling engines since their development in beta and gamma forms by Robert and James Stirling in Scotland during the first half of the 19th century.  They were made in 4”, 5’’, 6”, 8’ and 10” sizes. Riders were very successful hot air engines with a total of perhaps 30,000 sold, in a production run stretching through to the 1930’s.  They are heavy and back then cost more than an average person’s yearly income, but were also more powerful than their main rival, the beta type Ericsson pumping engine.  This made them suitable for deeper wells and higher lift. They also had a deserved reputation for dependability and incorporate a regenerator comprised of thin cast iron plates to improve efficiency.  Ericssons do not use regenerators.

Their main markets were pumping water to upper stories, filling railway water tanks and for supplying stock water troughs (especially in the US and Australia).

Hayward Tylers are rare, with only a few examples known to have survived.

This engine was smashed up and abandoned on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, probably before 1900.  It was recovered from a pond in the 1980’s.

The pistons, con rods, seals and seal rings were missing, and have been replaced by parts copied from other Hayward Tylers.  The distinctive firebox has not yet been replicated; a gas-fired equivalent has been fitted for now.

Nor is the pump original, as no patterns for this have yet been accessed.

An original Hayward Tyler water tank for it was recently found in a Nelson antique shop and is the only one known to have survived.  It’s thought to have come from Westport.

Another distinctive feature of Hayward Tylers as compared to the US made Riders or German licensee versions is the hot side water jacket and manifold- which are massive by comparison, and a useful feature given the tendency for leather seals to overheat.

Output is less than 200watts (1/4 hp) at 100rpm, which is not a lot for the price, but the alternative was to do all that pumping by hand, so clearly worthwhile.

 PETER LYNN, ASHBURTON, NEW ZEALAND.    peter@plk.nz