John Blenkinsop
John Blenkinsop | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1783 |
| Died | 22 January 1831 (aged 47) |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation(s) | inventor |
| Relatives | Thomas Barnes (cousin) |
.jpg)
John Blenkinsop (1783 – 22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an
He was born in
Blenkinsop and the Middleton Railway
In 1758 the Brandlings had built a wooden
While many people, such as
The general opinion of the time was that a locomotive would draw up to four times its weight by adhesion alone (assuming good conditions), but Blenkinsop wanted more, and his engine, weighing five tons, regularly hauled a payload of ninety tons. The first locomotive probably was
Two locomotives of this pattern were also made by the Royal Iron Foundry in Berlin. Though they worked well when tested at the Foundry, neither could be made to work properly at their intended workplaces, and both ended their days as stationary engines. The Murray/Blenkinsop locomotives had the first double-acting cylinders and, unlike the Trevithick pattern, no flywheel. The cylinders drove a geared wheel which engaged with the rack beside one rail. One of the geared locomotives was described as having two 8"x20" cylinders, driving the wheels through cranks. The piston crossheads worked in guides, rather than being controlled by parallel motion like the majority of early locomotives. Between them, the engines saw more than twenty years of service.[3]
The design was superseded when rolled iron rail, which could bear the heavier adhesion locomotives, was introduced in 1820. This was quickly adopted by George Stephenson and others.[4]
Sacred
to the memory of
Mr. John Blenkinsop,
upwards of twenty three years
Steward to the Middleton Estate
who departed this life, January
22nd 1831,[note 1] aged 47 years.
Sincerely regretted by all who knew him.
The centenary observed - 25th Jan. 1931.
John Blenkinsop invented the rack railway in 1811
and on a line he built between Leeds and Middleton,
4 Matthew Murray locomotives ran from 1812 to 1835.
His system was adopted at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1813
and Wigan in 1814. These railways were the first
on which steam locomotion was a commercial success.
In addition to managing the Middleton Collieries, in the 1820s John Blenkinsop was the consulting engineer for Sir John Lister Kaye of Denby Grange, owner of Caphouse Colliery. Also, as a qualified "Viewer", he was hired by various other colliery owners to examine their collieries and report on such vital matters as the expected future production of a pit, as well as to make suggestions as to how its operation and production could be improved. Blenkinsop died in Leeds in 1831, and is buried at Rothwell Parish Church.
-
Blenkinsop's grave -
Inscription, upper -
Inscription, lower
See also
Notes and references
- ^ The gravestone may appear to be carved 1851 in this photograph. This is due to the light and the style of the 3 employed by the mason.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica John Blenkinsop
- ISBN 0-903485-23-0.
- ^ "Curiosities of Locomotive Design". Catskill. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
- ^ Morgan, Bryan (1971). Railways: Civil Engineering. London: Longmans.
Further reading
- Chrimes, Mike (2002) Blenkinsop, John in A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers, p 62.
- Seccombe, Thomas (1901). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
- John Blenkinsop and the cogwheel railway Cotton Times Understanding the Industrial Revolution
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
