Cultural Landmarks of Hamilton-Wentworth

Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology

Location:  900 Woodward Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario

The 1850's were prosperous times in Hamilton. The Great Western Railway had located its headquarters and largest railways shops in the city which helped to stimulate economic growth. New factories and businesses were being established and Hamilton's population quickly rose past 10,000. The growing city was at the heart of the emerging Canadian Industrial Revolution. Urbanization, however, had its costs. In the early, residents drew water from the city's public wells or purchased it from a private supplier. As the population grew, the water supply became inadequate. The city was also without a sewer system. Therefore, the little available drinking water was easily contaminated by industrial, household, and human waste. The pollution led to the spread of cholera, the curse of 19th century urbanization. Cholera wiped out entire families in a violent and ignoble fashion. Victims suffered terrible fevers, vomiting, diarrhea and often died. People lived in terror of a disease that attacked without discrimination for age, gender, class, or religion. In 1854, cholera claimed over 500 lives in Hamilton - one in every forty residents.

By the mid 19th century, the new science of epidemiology was proving that people who drank clean water were far less likely to develop cholera than those who drank polluted water. Armed with this new knowledge, the city held a competition to choose the best design to provide a clean and steady supply of water. The new waterworks system would not only provide Hamiltonians with water for private consumption, but also to feed the fire hydrants. These would help diminish destruction caused by fire and reduce high fire insurance rates that many people believed were inhibiting Hamilton's commercial and industrial expansion.

Thomas Keefer(1821-1915), Chief Engineer of the Montreal Water board and one of Canada's most noted engineers, was appointed judge of this competition. Schemes for delivering water to Hamilton incorporated a variety of sources: Hamilton Harbour, entrapped streams on the Escarpment, and even a diverted Grand River. However, Keefer criticised all of these approaches for failing on one of three grounds: inadequate supply, poor quality or excessive cost. Keefer realised that Lake Ontario was the only practical source of water in the long term. Thus, he proposed a system that drew water from an infiltration basin at the lakefront and pumped it to a reservoir atop the Niagara Escarpment. From there, gravity would carry the water through pipes into the city. Burlington Bay remained the dumping site for the city's waste water. To raise water from the lake to the reservoir, the waterworks required pumps driven by steam engines. Keefer selected two independent operating 70 ton, 45 feet tall Woolf Compound Rotative Beam Engines and four Cornish style boilers. These engines were chosen for their high efficiency, reliability, and steady actions. They were built by John Gartshore's Dundas Iron and Brass Foundry of Dundas, Canada West.

The Hamilton waterworks was officially opened in 1860 by the Prince of Wales during the first royal tour of the Canadas. The complex was impressive with an enginehouse which was clothed in a Northern Italian Chapel style building set on a mound. The height of this building was emphasized by the shorter boilerhouse with its hipped roof and simple bull's eye windows. The chimney was constructed in the traditional Italian campanile (bell or watch tower) style. As the tallest structure in the area, the 150 foot chimney could be seen for several miles from shore and served as a navigational landmark. The stone for the buildings was locally quarried and cut by stone masons to form the round arches of the enginehouse windows. These arches echo the architraves of Roman aqueducts and reveal the massive flywheels of an engine completely integrated into the structure of the building.

The complex was run by two teams which included a stoker or fireman, an oiler and two engineers (one Chief Engineer, and one Shift Engineer) who traded between the thirteen hour night shift and the eleven hour day shift. Working at the site could be both unpleasant and dangerous. Temperatures in the boilerhouse reached 140° F and there was the ever present danger of a boiler explosion. The stoker manually fed up to 300 pounds of coal per engine, per hour into the boilers. He also cleaned the boilers regularly by climbing into the dark and stuffy interior to chip at the scale that had formed.

In the pumphouse, the mutton fat based oil spread a rancid smell throughout the building. The poor lighting added to the threat of burns or getting caught in the moving engine. Oilers cleaned the engines and tended the approximately 100 oil cups in each engine. These tasks required skill since they were performed constantly while the engine was running. Despite these drawbacks, the steady cash wages and on-site lodgings provided for the men and their families made employment at the pump desirable. Employees were paid the very good wage of about $1.00 a day. In contrast, the Chief Engineer received roughly $2.00 a day.

In 1882, to meet the increased demand for water from new industry, replacement boilers and pumps were installed which doubled the capacity of the new station to 5 million gallons of water a day. Hamilton's industrial growth, however, soon outgrew this new capacity. A new station, using Hamilton's Osbourbe-Kiley engines, was erected in 1887 adjacent to the earlier building.

In 1910, an electrically powered station was built and daily use of the 1859 waterworks was finally discontinued. The steam engines remained on stand-by service until 1938. The pumphouse then became vacant except for the occasional cleaning crews and a steady trickle of visitors.

During the 1970's, the Institute of Power Engineers (Hamilton Pump Group) volunteered to return the engines to operating condition. In 1983, the pumphouse was opened to the public as the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology with the former boiler room used as a gallery to display changing exhibits.

In 1988, the site was absorbed into the City of Hamilton's Department of Culture and Recreation. The Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology is now dedicated to preserving and communicating Hamilton's industrial heritage including the water works.

The south engine has been operational since the 1980's, while the north engine was still seized. It is believed the water pump became badly corroded and developed a crust of water stone which immobilised it. Since the engines were built into the structure of building, it was impossible to disassemble the engine for repairs. Therefore, the technique of water blasting was used to dislodge the water stone. A successful restoration effort was launched to free the south engine. Though it is not completely operational, it can be moved by baring the flywheel. Efforts to prevent further corrosion have been undertaken by applying tannic acid to the interior surfaces. Moreover, the pumps are sealed and a de-humidifier will keep the interior volume of the pumps and pipes at below two percent RH.

Through the waterworks, Hamilton met the needs of its citizens and encouraged industrialization. With the arrival of factories, working life changed dramatically. Labourers, who formerly worked to the rhythm of the seasons, now punched clocks and worked at the pace of the assembly line. At the same time, the pump steadily improved the quality of these labourers' lives, not only could they drink clean water, but its steady flow allowed for the development of household appliances and conveniences. New standards of hygiene emerged and consequently contributed to the health of the general population. Considering the great significance of this last surviving North American example of a mid-19th Century waterworks, it is appropriate that it has become part of a heritage institution. The construction of the waterworks changed the course of Hamilton's history and the lives of generations of its residents.

Today the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology is a vast resource of information. It has hosted an annual Antique Steam and Gas Engine Show since 1982. This show allows people the opportunity to see historic gas and steam engines run and to ask the exhibitors questions about their engines and the history behind it. These shows are supported by the Hamilton Model Engineering Club, the Hamilton Historical Machinery Club, the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers, Confederation Marine Modellers, the Regional Department of Engineering, Confederation Park, Dupuis Sawmill Inc., and the Stoney Creek Lions Club. The Museum also holds classes for school children to explore the world of steam technology, its impact on the area and further developments. Thus, the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology continues to serve the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth.

Acknowledgements:

The Hamilton Public Library would like to thank the Museum of Steam and Technology for graciously contributing the information for use in this webpage.  The Library would also like to thank Mr. Jim Mackie and Mrs. Doreen Mackie for graciously donating photos for use on this website.