A series of fortunate events...

We have been cleaning the Wielemans-Ceuppens machines for a month already. For the moment, we have completed the cleaning phase for the two Ingersoll Rand and the De la Vergne compressors, as well as for the bridge crane.

Besides that, after a meeting with heritage authorities that took place on January 14th, we received the green light to use an anti-rust coating on all our machines! The first one to receive the treatment was the horizontal Ingersoll Rand compressor, which looks fantastic!

As explained previously, the cleaning is the first step of the restoration itself. It is during this phase that we get to know exactly what the condition of each machine is, and therefore understand what is required in order to set some of them in motion again.

We are naturally optimistic people. So, we had hope they still were in a good state, despite being stopped for decades. However, we didn't know exactly how hard it would be to set them in motion again… All we could hope is that some of them might eventually move again, but we had no idea of how many trials we would have to do before that.

According to our plans, if everything goes well, at the end of the restoration we will have set the bridge crane, the De la Vergne and Sulzer compressors and the Carels & Frères steam machine in motion again.

Luckily, during the initial cleaning we figured out that half of our goals are met! After the good news about the bridge crane (link here!), it was time for the De la Vergne compressor to give us a glimpse of its magnificence! (link here!) 100 years after its last known operation, our team managed to set it in motion again. At 122, Mr. De la Vergne it is still alive and kicking!