Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Hydraulic Accumulators . . .

A hydraulic what? A hydraulic accumulator is basically a battery i.e. it stores energy until it is needed except, instead of electrical energy, it is a method of storing energy as a pressurised mass of water which may be converted into mechanical energy to provide useful motion to dockside equipment.

"The hydraulic accumulator of Lord Armstrong (1810-1900) overcame the difficulty that certain mechanical operations involve short periods of heavy demand for power followed by idleness and thus increased the application of water power to cranes, lifts and other machines" wrote Mr J. Allen of Aberdeen University in his paper on the subject of British Hydraulic Engineering and Research. [250]

Sir William G. Armstrong & Co. were renowned engineers based at Newcastle-on-Tyne who designed and built a number of the coal tips at Penarth Dock as well as defining the methodology of opening lock gates by hydraulic power. His hydraulic accumulator set the standard by which other hydraulic engineers followed. An early example of an accumulator was shown in an edition of the Engineer showing a variety of their hydraulic machines and applications.

The civil engineer Leveson Francis Vernon-Harcourt (1839-1907) was a pupil of John Hawkshaw who designed the original Penarth Dock and was involved in the construction works during 1862. You may recall 'The Engineer', a periodical, of June 1865 described the equipment at Penarth Dock and stated that "Very powerful hydraulic machinery has been provided, with a plunger of 80 tons." The plunger was of course, an hydraulic accumulator. Vernon-Harcourt later wrote about hydraulic systems, including the use of an accumulator, in a book concerning the construction of Harbours and Docks [251] published in 1885:

Hydraulic Machinery - "Water-pressure stored up by steam power and the aid of an accumulator, and distributed through cast-iron pipes, has proved the most convenient agent for working the various machines employed at docks. the work carried on by machinery at docks consists of a number of intermittent operations, such as opening and closing the dock and sluice gates, turning the swing bridges and capstans, and working cranes and lifts.