Group Report Corliss Engine

Group Report Corliss Engine: The Great Corliss Engine This remarkable mechanism was a simple condensing engine. It was finished in 1876 requiring seven months to build. It furnished power for running the machinery at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. It was purchased by George Pullman in 1880 and was moved from Providence RI where it had been in storage after the run of the Centennial Exposition to Pullman, requiring a train of thirty-five cars to transport it. It was shaped like the capital letter A and from the floor to the top of the walking beam was forty feet. The cylinders were forty inches in diameter affording a ten-foot stroke. The diameter of the crankshaft was eighteen inches and twelve feet long. The diameter of the large gear (fly) wheel was thirty feet with a face of 24 inches and was the largest gear wheel in the world. The gear wheel meshed into a pinion wheel that powered 3268 feet of main power shafting located in tunnels 4-5 feet below grade in tunnel.