Grasshopper Beam Engine

Client: Derby Museum of Making 

Location: Derby, UK 

Roles and Responsibilities:
Concept development, Interactive design, Gallery Layout

Link:
https://derbymuseums.org/museum-of-making 

Summary:

The Museum of Making located at Derby Silk Mill features a fully-functional Grasshopper beam engine. This steam powered machinery was originally used in the mill during the 1800’s to operate smaller machines on the shop floor, by using the piston power from the beam to drive a large flywheel, which in-turn would drive a set of belts.

As the cost of running and maintaining the steam power required to operate the Grasshopper engine was so high, my brief to come up with an electro-mechanical alternative that could be used to drive the flywheel and still demonstrate to visitors how the piston mechanism of the Grasshopper engine works. Two key considerations for this project were to ensure that the motorized driving wheel would be powerful enough to rotate the large flywheel of the engine, and to ensure that the driving wheel could also account for any unevenness in the shape of the flywheel as it rotates.