#35 Hacienda La Esperanza Sugar Mill Steam Engine
1861
Typical beam steam engine of the mid-19th century, directly connected to sugar crushing rolls
The La Esperanza sugar mill steam engine is one of the few remaining American links to the pioneer beam engines of the English inventors Thomas Newcomen (1712) and James Watt (1769). The engine was built in 1861 in Cold Spring, New York, by the West Point Foundry. The general arrangement and details, including the Gothic embellishment, are typical of machinery of the period. The straight-line motion of the piston rod is accommodated to the arc of the moving beam end by a parallel motion. Watt regarded this ingenious linkage as the invention of which he was most proud.
The sugar cane plantation was founded in 1850 by Don Jose Ramon Fernandez y Martinez, Marquis of La Esperanza. The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico restored the machinery as part of a sugar museum.
The La Esperanza's decorated steam engine is the only West Point Foundry beam engine known to survive.
Landmark Location
Conservation Trust of Puerto
Rico San Jaun, PR 00902-4747
Visiting Info
by appointment
Comments from Visitors/Members
1994 Survey by Suzanne M. Tomasini: Currently the item is being restored, but the site is in excellent condition and the plaque is being displayed.
Ceremony Notes
February 1979