Museum De Cruquius

The Haarlemmermeer was a lake of about a hundred and seventy square kilometres that had grown by erosion until it threatened Amsterdam and Leiden, and between 1849 and 1852 it was pumped dry by three steam engines - Leeghwater, Cruquius and Lijnden - in one of the largest engineering projects of the century; the ground it left is now Schiphol airport and a good deal of farmland. The Cruquius engine survives in its building. It is a Cornish beam engine with a single cylinder of about three and a half metres bore, the largest steam cylinder ever built, driving eight beams that radiate out through the walls to eight pumps around the outside, so the whole building is the machine. It was worked until 1933. The museum runs it hydraulically for demonstration since raising steam is no longer practical, and covers Dutch water management generally.

What you actually see

• The largest steam cylinder ever built - about three and a half metres in bore.
• Eight beams through the walls - the building itself forming the machine.
• The engine that drained a lake - one of three that emptied the Haarlemmermeer by 1852.
• A hydraulic demonstration - the mechanism moved without raising steam.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The engine is moved hydraulically, not under steam - do not expect a working steam engine. Closed on some weekdays outside summer. It is a specialist subject, well presented but technical.

Nearby

Haarlem is north; Schiphol stands on the drained lake bed.