Russian historians have discovered a British-made steam engine that was brought to the Siberian wilderness during a 19th-century gold rush.
Vladimir Chernikov and Dmitry Semenov, members of the Russian Geographical Society overseen by Vladimir Putin, found the five-tonne steam engine, one of the last of its kind in the world, after three expeditions into the forest north of Krasnoyarsk.
The machine, which survived the harsh Siberian winters in surprisingly good condition, has been delivered to a local museum on a tipper lorry. Mr Chernikov believes that another such steam engine in the area was sold for scrap.
“We didn’t want this prize to fall into the hands of greedy people,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. “For us it’s a historical treasure, but for some it’s just a bunch of scrap metal.”
The steam engine was built by Richard Garrett and Sons Ltd, founded in 1778 in the Suffolk town of Leiston.
After hearing about the efficiency of assembly line production from American gunmaker Samuel Colt at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, Richard Garrett III established the first such production line for steam engines.
It was a huge success, exporting its products around the world, and the “Long Shop” in Leiston is still preserved as a museum.
Mr Chernikov said he’s contacted the Royal Geographic Society to try to establish when the Krasnoyarsk steam engine was made and who bought it.
It would have been shipped to Russia through the Arctic Ocean, then hauled by frozen rivers and roads to the mines.
The 19th century Siberian gold rush began, according to legend, after a hunter discovered gold amongst the sand that had been swallowed by a grouse he shot.
Workers first panned for gold, then later dug for it.
Miners in Krasnoyarsk probably used the Leiston steam engine to pump out groundwater and pulverise rocks.
Mr Chernikov heard about its existence from a local who pointed out its rough location on a map, but couldn’t find it when he and his partner bicycled to the area.
He had to give up on his second attempt because the road was too muddy to cycle. On a third try, the pair got a lift on a petrol tank lorry and hiked 10 miles through the wilderness.
“We took a break, ate lunch and decided to go a little further, and that’s when we got lucky. Literally 100 metres along we ran into the machine,” he said.
Ironically, it was the Russian sales of Garrett and Sons that helped bring about the firm’s demise. Following the 1917 revolution, it couldn’t collect the huge debts it was owed for machinery exported to Russia.
The company went into receivership in 1932 and was bought by Beyer Peacock of Manchester, which closed down its Leiston production in 1980.