dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

Figure 1: X-radiograph mosaic of USS Monitor port side Worthington pump.
Worthington Pumps
The Worthington direct-acting steam pump was a
distinctly American invention patented in 1844. Its
primary advantage was compactness and lightness
of weight when compared to the then customary
beam and flywheel pumps. Henry R. Worthington
established manufacturing facilities in New York
which were located close to the USS Monitor
construction site. Two of these pumps were installed
in USS Monitor and we believe them to be “off-theshelf”.
The pumps were mounted port and starboard
in the engine room. They pumped boiler feed water,
served for firefighting, cleared the bilge, and had
other uses. They likely are the oldest surviving
examples of a Worthington design. [3]
The pumps were initially stored in a pH 12 sodium
hydroxide solution upon recovery to prevent corrosion
before active conservation treatment began in 2007.
Investigation of these components began with
documentation and x-radiography of the port pump.
Visual examination determined that the pump body
casting had cracked during the wrecking event and
had rotated 90 degrees around the pump shaft, but
the condition of the pump and internal components
beneath the concretion layer was otherwise unknown.
X-radiography with an 8 MeV linear accelerator
was performed at Northrop Grumman Newport
News Shipbuilding yielded excellent penetration and
high quality images (Figure 1). All of the internal
components such as the steam piston, slide valves,
water plunger and poppet valves could be clearly
seen, as well as the differences in density between
the graphitized cast iron body and the well preserved
copper-alloy components. The x-rays were invaluable
in planning the deconcretion and disassembly of the
Figure 2: Starboard Worthington pump during deconcretion.
Note the patent date of April 3, 1849 on the side of the cast iron
cradle.
129