Laxey of the Isle of Man, was built in 1854 to pump water from the Laxey mine shafts. Now a tourist attraction, it remains the largest working waterwheel in the world. Designed by Robert Casement, it is in diameter and wide. It revolves at about 3 rpm. The mines employed over 600 miners at their peak, producing lead, copper, silver and zinc, until they closed in 1929. The Wheel was owned by Edwin Kneale from 1939 to 1965; he saved it from being dismantled and ran it as a tourist attraction, before passing it on to the Manx nation, with the
SS Ellan Vannin (1854) management of the "Ellan Vannin" and for his part in the establishment of the company. However, by the end of 1856 the Castletown Steam Navigation Company were starting to make a loss. At their third Annual General Meeting held at the town hall, Castletown on Wednesday 17 December 1856, it was disclosed that for the previous two months the company had sustained a weekly loss of £12 (equivalent to £ in ) resulting in a total loss of £100 (equivalent to £ in ). One of the directors reported that they had received several offers from a company in Dublin