The Bathe Small-Power Accumulator Charging Plant
By David Ralph
Those who attended the Hassocks Breakfast Gas-Up would have seen my c.1906 Bathe charging plant which was out for the first time in my ownership. However, it’s not new to SEAMS events as it was previously owned and restored by the late Colin Williams.
Mr G. Bathe ran The Small Power Engine Works from premises at 295 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush in West London. He introduced his accumulator charging plant in early 1906. Initially it was available with hot tube ignition but it was soon offered with electric spark ignition. The 1/4hp gas engine drives a ‘Manchester’ type generator of 10 volts at 4 amps. The engine and generator are mounted on a cast iron box bed which contains a gas bag, water tank, and exhaust silencer which makes it a very compact unit. On the side of the box bed is a rotary water pump that circulates cooling water through the engine.
By October 1906 Mr Bathe stated that as well as supplying complete ready to run plants he could now supply sets of castings for the customer to construct their own charging plant. Intriguingly the following month Mr Bathe offered a ‘free gift’ with each set of castings. I wonder what that free gift was.
The Bathe charging plant that I now own was acquired many years ago by Mr Killick in East Sussex and was added to his vast collection of vintage machinery. At that time it was in derelict and incomplete condition. In 2017 Colin Williams and Richard Winter visited the Killicks and Colin was offered the still derelict Bathe. Unfortunately he didn’t have any money with him so Richard paid for it and so actually owned it for as long as it took to drive to a cashpoint machine!
Colin carried out a thorough restoration of the charging plant, making the missing or damaged parts and getting it to run very well. He then took it to a few rallies in 2018 including Nuenen, Beaulieu and Balls Cross. After Colin passed away his daughter Faye took the Bathe to her home in Surrey but eventually decided that she would never run it herself so it would be better to sell it.
Faye listed the Bathe on eBay and I was bidding for it but sadly got outbid in the last minute. Details of the sale appeared on Facebook so I left a comment that I was the underbidder and wished that I had bid a little higher. After that I thought no more of it until a few weeks later when I received a Facebook message from the buyer to say that he had decided that it wasn’t the engine for him and asked if I was still interested. Most definitely YES. Unfortunately the Bathe was now in Tamworth, Staffordshire so a 330 mile round trip. When I checked the owner’s address on Google Street View I realised that I had been there a few years before as I had bought an open crank Bradford from him. A few days later I drove up to Tamworth and came home a very happy person. On the way home I stopped at the Gaydon Motor Museum in Warwickshire as I wanted to do some research on my 1904 Wolseley car in their archives. So that saved a separate trip of 240 miles.
Since buying the Bathe in September this year I have replaced the rubber cooling hoses with brass tubes as this seems to be how they were supplied when new. I have also refurbished the rusty Workmate the set is exhibited on, re-wired the ignition, and re-varnished all the wood. The set didn’t come with a gas regulator or demand valve so I purchased a Garretson demand valve and plumbed that in. Initially I couldn’t get the water pump to work as it wasn’t tuning fast enough so I changed the pulley size on the pump to a smaller one. This worked well and I was able to run the engine for about 3 hours at the Hassocks gas-up.
As I write these notes the set is stripped down as the water tank, which is cast into the box bed, had an inch of thick rusty sludge in the bottom. The drain tap is above the bottom of the tank so a pint of water has remained in the tank since Colin restored it. The only way to reach the inside of the tank is to lift the engine off the bed. Unfortunately some of the paint was damaged during dismantling so I have decided to fully repaint the set. I am treating the rust and will then paint the inside of the tank. I then need to work out a method of fully draining the tank after each outing.