On September 28, the Chongqing Industrial Museum in Dadukou exhibited an 8,000 horsepower steam engine, treasure of the Museum.

On September 28, citizens were visiting steelmaking equipment at the Chongqing Industrial Museum.

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- On September 28, Chongqing Industrial Museum was officially opened at the former Chongqing Steel Factory. A thick industrial smell was smelled at the door of the factory. The old factory still retained the old buildings, workshops and some machines. Unlike before, what remained was now not the noise of steel splash, but thick industrial culture.

At the most prominent place in the Museum, visitors could get in close contact with the "treasure of the museum" － a 8000 horsepower two-cylinder horizontal steam engine produced by Sheffield Company in 1905.

The giant steam engine, though rusty and mottled, was a "living fossil" of heavy steel's early industrial equipment.

Hu Tingli, the 71-year-old former director of Chongqing Steel Factory, mentioned and gave out details of the origin and development of the "treasure". In 1906, at the end of the Self-Strengthening Movement at the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong, Governor of Huguang, introduced the machine from Sheffield, England, to forge China's iron and steel industry. At that time, the steam engine represented the highest level of world industry. The predecessor of Chongqing Steel Company was Hanyang Iron Works, and this 8000 horsepower steam engine was one of the equipment of Hanyang Iron Factory.

Hu Tingli said that on May 10, 1950, workers of Chongqing Steel Factory used the machine as a power to produce the first rail of the People’s Republic of China for the construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, the first railway for the People’s Republic of China. Since then, the heavy machine has been continuously developing and producing new products, realizing the serialization of mining channel steel.

In 1985, the energy-saving transformation of Chongqing Steel Factory replaced the steam engine by the motor. As the last rolling engine powered by the steam engine in China, the steam engine stopped production and completed its historical mission.

The trial operation period is from September 29 to December 28, during which the main Exhibition Hall, Steel Soul Hall and Industrial Heritage Park will be free for visitors. Since the Steel Soul Museum is a relic museum, after the trial operation, it will charge for the tour as usual. The specific charge standard and time will be announced in advance on the official website of Chongqing Industrial Culture Expo Park. (Translated by Luo Juan, Fathom Language Limited)