In the year 1811, several of the proprietors of the mines in Cornwall, suspecting that some of their engines might not be doing a duty adequate to their consumption of fuel, came to a determination to establish a uniform method of testing the performance of their engines. For this purpose a counter was attached to each engine, to register the number of strokes of the piston. All the engines were put under the superintendence of Messrs. Thomas and John Lean, engineers; and the different proprietors of the mines, as well as their directing engineers, respectively pledged themselves to give every facility and assistance in their power for the attainment of so desirable an end. Messrs. Lean were directed to publish a monthly report of the performance of each engine, specifying the name of the mine, the size of the cylinder, the load upon the engine, the length of the stroke, the number of pump lifts, the depth of the lift, the diameter of the pumps, the time worked, the consumption of coals, the load on the pump, and, finally, the duty of the engine, or the number of pounds lifted one foot high by a bushel of coals. The publication of these monthly reports commenced in August, 1811, and have been regularly continued to the present time.
The favourable effect which these reports have produced upon the vigilance of the several engineers, and the emulation they have excited, both among engine-makers and those to whom the working of the machines are intrusted, are rendered conspicuous in the improvement which has gradually taken place in the performance of the engines, up to the present time. In a report published in December, 1826, the highest duty was that of an engine at Wheal Hope mine in Cornwall. By the consumption of one bushel of coals, this engine raised 46,838,246 pounds a foot high, or, in round numbers, forty-seven millions of pounds.
In a report published in the course of the present year (1835) it was announced that a steam engine, erected at a copper mine near St. Anstell, in Cornwall, had raised by its average work 95 millions of pounds 1 foot high, with a bushel of coals. This enormous mechanical effect having given rise to some doubts as to the correctness of the experiments on which the report was founded, it was agreed that another trial should be made in the presence of a number of competent and disinterested witnesses. This trial accordingly took place a short time since, and was witnessed by a number of the most experienced mining engineers and agents: the result was, that for every bushel of coal consumed under the boiler the engine raised 125-1/2 millions of pounds weight one foot high.