The Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Wednesday 25th June 2014
Today we decided to go and visit The Museum of Lincolnshire Life, which we had spotted signs for while walking to the water tower yesterday.
Thank goodness for the wonderful hill bus, walking up there would probably take us all day.
The museum turned out to be very well done. Sometimes these smaller, regional museums can be a bit disappointing, but this one was fairly interesting.
There was the usual exhibits of Victorian life, kitchens and parlours etc. However there was also a good sized hall full of machinery, which I'm sure most of you will not be surprised to learn was more to my taste.

A Ruston twin cylinder engine from a pumping station

I didn't know it but the engine maker Ruston comes from around here. They have been around for many years, making all sorts of specialist motors, mostly stationary engines. They also branched out into excavators. My interest in the marque comes from their provision of canal boat engines. It's one of the motors to which many canal enthusiasts aspire. Nowadays they are fairly rare, and expensive of course.

Ruston also made this rotary aircraft engine under licenceth

These rotary engines were strange beasts by today's standards. The propeller was attached to the engine crank case, the crank shaft was solidly attached to the aircraft, so the cylinders whirled around with the prop. One side effect of this arrangement was that there was no engine speed control like a throttle. The only control the pilot had was an on/off switch, all or nothing.

A "Mother" tank

Another thing I learned was that the first tanks as used in the First World War were designed here in Lincolnshire.

On the house front, it's not quite dead yet. The selling agent has said they can find a local solicitor who should be able to complete our purchase in the time scale already set out. It's fingers crossed time, both Cath and I are a bit low about the situation.