How big are tin mine buildings

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

some maintenance - they were looking for volunteers, probably still are, as it's an ongoing thing. I left the country shortly afterwards, anyway.

[Chris Hogg]

editions in the last few decades too. "Engine duty" is the usual term for Cornwall.

Lean's Engine Reporter first appeared only in 1811, and the phrase was in use at least 25 years before that. If the ascribed origin of the phrase is correct, it can only have applied to early Newcomen engines, as Watt and subsequent engines would have performed much better, and the current explanation of 'nineteen to the dozen' would not have been anything to remark on.

However, the interpretation, that 'nineteen' referred to 19,000 gallons, and that 'dozen' referred to a dozen bushels of coal, does not use the language of engine efficiency current at that time, which were millions of pounds of water, not thousands of gallons, raised by burning one bushel of coal, not a dozen bushels. Of course, the Newcomen engines were originally used for pumping water from coal mines in the Midlands, and in those early days the descriptions of engine performance may have been less rigorous and less formalised, but I still doubt the suggested origin of the phrase. In my view it's a myth, but I guess we'll never know for certain.