Back in issue #152, whilst writing about the vertical Capel engine, I commented briefly on the horizontal engines produced at the Capel Engine Works, Dalston Road, London, UK, adding that, if sufficient information could be acquired, an article on the horizontal Capel engine would be forthcoming. Well, this has now been possible, thanks to a. number of The Old Machinery Magazine readers.

Finding information on the early days of Capel engine production has not been the easiest of tasks, but information has come to light suggesting that the company embarked on the production of town gas engines around 1891 or 1892, and not 1899, as I had first thought and stated in the A to Z of British Stationary Engines. This earlier date has come about thanks to a statement made by that eminent engineer, Bryan Donkin who, in 1911, wrote “Messrs Capel & Co. of Hackney, London had some 20 years experience of manufacturing gas engines”. 

It would appear that the Capel town gas engine, designated the XL OTTO engi