Ferrabee's Double Cylinder or Compound Beam Engine

None of Ferrabee's Phoenix Ironworks beam engines are known to survive. Several single column style design beam engines have survived into preservation such as this 1851 Beam engine at Hereford Waterworks Museum.

The publication briefly mentions this and other Ferrabee engines. This engraving shows a compound type steam engine with two steam cylinders. Compounding was invented by Jonathan Hornblower and perfected by Arthur Woolf.  

The Phoenix Ironworks was one of hundreds of companies that manufactured steam engines to power industry. Like lawnmower manufacturers, steam engine builders' engines were always very distinctive due to their regional characteristics and decorative embellishments. It is therefore often possible to identify the manufacturer from the design.

James Ferrabee's contribution to the development of the steam engine was in Patent 2858, registered 13 December 1858 and devised with the help of engineer Wilson Hartnell.