 |
| Artist's portrayal of a bustling Victorian Station |
“[T]he engine, having received its supply
of water, the carriage placed behind it… and was set off at its utmost speed,
thirty-five miles an hour, swifter than a bird flies… You cannot conceive what
that sensation of cutting the air was; the motion is as smooth as possible, too.”[1] This quote from Fanny Kemble describes the
experience of travelling by steam locomotive during the early days of rail
travel. The Industrial Revolution owes
much of its development to the steam locomotive. These steam driven machines changed the world
by allowing for people and goods to reach destinations faster than in the past
and would dominate transportation for almost a century. The innovators of this change in transport
were Richard Trevithick and the father-son duo George and Robert Stephenson, their
efforts in the development of the steam engine culminated at the Rainhill
Trials. Their work affected the
Industrial Revolution by developing the steam engine from being a tool for
mining and factory work into a revolutionary mode of transport.
 |
| Richard Trevithick |
Trevithick’s invention of the stream
locomotive was merely an improvement on an improvement to the steam
engine. In 1777, the Newcomen atmospheric
steam engine purpose was to pump water out of mines to allow for further
collection of coal, iron and other important minerals by British mining
industry.[2] These steam engines were heavily
inefficient, consuming copious amounts of coal and a thermal efficiency of
around one percent.[3] In 1763, Scottish engineer James Watt was
able to make the steam engine more efficient by introducing a water-cooled
condenser that was connected to the cylinder via a long pipe and then closed
off the top of the cylinder to prevent heat loss, allowing less coal to be
needed in powering the engine.[4] Though this made the engine more practical,
it still used low pressure, making it difficult any other use other than
factory work.[5]
Trevithick believed that higher
pressure would allow for a more effective engine.[6] To make this belief a reality, he used a
boiler and piston design and had the fire and flue placed within the boiler to maximize
amount of water that would be heated to power the engine.[7] The success of this innovation led Trevithick
to see if his improved steam engine could actually propel itself and set to
work, with assistance from friends in Camborne, make this image come true. By 1801, the Puffing Devil made its first run along the streets of Camborne,
only stopping when it ran out of steam.[8] The voyage of Puffing Devil proved to Trevithick’s theory that a steam engine
with a boiler-piston design could act as a self-moving machine for transport.
 |
| Artist's portrayal of Trevithick's locomotive traveling along the Pen-y-Darren Tramway |
On February 1804, Samuel Homfray,
owner of the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in South Wales, challenged Trevithick to a wager
of five-hundred guineas that a steam propelled “travelling engine” could not
carry eleven tons across the ten mile tramway from Pen-y-Darren to the Glamorganshire Canal in Abercynon.[9] Trevithick accepted this bet, and on 21
February 1804, his locomotive, a crudely built machine with a single vertical
piston and long piston rod to power an eight-foot flywheel, set out along the
cast iron rails of Pen-y-Darren’s tramway with ten tons of pig iron and seventy
men.[10] Trevithick’s engine accomplished the voyage
in four hours, travelling five miles an hour, but its weight broke the brittle iron
rails by the end of its journey.[11] While the Pen-y-Darren returned to using
horses for the next thirty years, Trevithick proved the capability of his steam
driven machines as a form of transport.
 |
| George Stephenson |
Trevithick’s success in building his
steam engine to pull goods and passengers at Pen-y-Darren sparked a boom in
developing rail transport, including a civil and mechanical engineer from Northumberland
named George Stephenson. Stephenson first
interaction with a steam locomotive’s inner workings started while working on
the Blücher at a colliery in
Killingworth. It was while working on Blücher that Stephenson introduced a
series of long lasting innovations such as condensing the number of controls
for the cut-off to a throttle, and allowing the engine to move in reverse. Stephenson’s innovations interested Edward
Pease, who made Stephenson chief engineer on the Stockton and Darlington
Railway in 1823.[12] The twenty-six mile rail line connected the
port town of Stockton-on-Tees with the industrial town of Darlington; it had
been the hope of Pease to make this line a “great public way,”[13]
where both passengers and goods could travel between the two communities.
 |
| Print of George Stephenson's Locomotion |
On 25 September 1825, the Stockton
and Darlington Railway was opened to the public with Stephenson’s Locomotion pulling the first train
containing six hundred passengers and freight as a top speed of twelve mile per
hour.[14] Unlike
Trevithick’s Pen-y-Darren locomotive that had one piston and a flywheel,
Stephenson designed Locomotion with
two pistons mounted vertically in the boiler while crossheads and connecting
rods branched off to drive the wheels.[15] Though Locomotion
proved successful in its inaugural voyage, the Stockton and Darlington was not
ready for complete mechanisation of its railway; passengers would continue to
be carried by horse-drawn wagons while the locomotives would be restricted to
hauling coal.[16]
 |
| Robert Stephenson, circa 1850 |
George Stephenson’s success at
Stockton and Darlington led him to the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. The thirty mile line had been built to
connect the city of Liverpool with the industrial centre of Manchester so that
merchants would be able to import and export goods with markets in the United
States.[17] The main issue that arose in the planning
stages of the railway was whether to use locomotives or cable inclines. Stephenson was not against cableways, having
used such traction on his colliery, but he believed that locomotives would be a
better choice for the new line.[18] While a compromise was agreed upon over the
gradients of the line, the debate over whether cable or locomotive would be
used to work the line was still in heated battle. It was agreed among the directors of the
Manchester and Liverpool Railway that the answer to the problem would be found
through an experimental rally.[19] A prize of five hundred pounds offered to “a
Locomotive Engine which shall be a decided improvement on those now in use.”[20] Those interested in participating had only
five months to design, test and build their locomotives to meet the strict
standards set for the trials.[21] The engines would pull three times their own
weight while not polluting the surrounding area, meaning that coke would have
to be burned instead of coal.[22] On October 6, 1829, five contestants in what
would be remembered as the Rainhill Trials greeted the directors.[23]
 |
| Robert Stephenson's Rocket |
Among the contestants was George
Stephenson’s son Robert, who had taken over overseeing the development of the
Stephenson firm’s entry, Rocket. Robert Stephenson’s entry was designed to
improve upon the father’s Locomotion
while using well-established innovations to allow the locomotive to meet the
standards set at the trials. The two
pistons on Rocket were set at a
thirty-five degree angle on the sides of the back end of the boiler with
connecting rods to power the front driving wheels.[24] Robert introduced two major innovations with
his engine: the multitubular boiler (an invention by Marc Séguin) and a
blastpipe, to draw air through the boiler tubes and assist in the consumption
of fuel.[25] The improved boiler and the new blastpipe
allowed for Rocket to consume less
fuel and be consistent in its performance when it appeared at Rainhill.
 |
| Diagram of Cyclopede |
Rocket was the only engine to perform consistently without issue during the trials, among the contending locomotives was a “horse worked contraption” call Cycloped.[26] It proved to be an early failure when one of the horses on Cycloped’s treadmill fell through the floor of the engine and broke its hoof.[27] Timothy Burstall’s Perseverance became damaged when it was delivered to Rainhill and, though allowed time for repairs, only reached ten miles per hour when it made its appearance.[28]
 |
| Novelty (left) and Sans Pareil (right) |
In conclusion, the success of
Richard Trevithick, and George and his son Robert Stephenson meant that the
steam locomotive had a leading place in the Industrial Revolution. The success at Pen-y-Darren prompted
Trevithick to improve on his invention and displayed it in London in 1808 along
a circular track under the name Catch Me
Who Can, it was not as successful due to a broken rail and a lack of
interest by the public after a while, forcing Trevithick to close his venue a
few weeks later.[33] Trevithick had successfully taken Watt’s
improved steam engine and made it into a smaller and useful travelling machine,
setting the stage for the rise of steam traction in transportation. George Stephenson’s Locomotion continued regular service until 1841.[34] During its thirty-year career, Locomotion’s boiler exploded in 1828 and
had to be refitted before briefly serving as a pumping station during the
1840s.[35] Since 1975, it has sat in the Darlington
Railway Museum as a testament of George Stephenson’s effort in improving the
steam locomotive and proving its strength and durability in pulling passengers
and goods. Robert Stephenson’s victory
at Rainhill meant that he would have a contract with the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway to produce more engines.[36] He would go on to improve upon his Rocket design and produce more advanced
locomotives such as his Planet class
engines, the first steam locomotive class created.[37] Despite
the original steam powered engine having a different objective, Trevithick made
it possible for it to become a form of transportation. George and Robert Stephenson introduced new
ways for the steam locomotive to become more practical in British society and
demonstrated how these machines would change British society for the better. Therefore, the developments by Trevithick and
the Stephenson’s allowed for the locomotive to become a part of the Industrial
Revolution.
 |
| J. M. W. Turner's Rain Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway |
Bibliography
Dettmer, Roger. “Prime Mover.” Engineering
& Technology (17509637) 8, no. 11 (December 2013): 60-63. Academic
Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2015).
Gardner,
Laura. “Archive.” Professional Engineering 20, no. 7 (April 4,
2007): 80. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed
February 19, 2015).
Garratt,
Colin, ed. The World Encyclopaedia of
Locomotives. London: Acropolis Books, 1997.
Kemble,
Fanny. “A Trip on Stephenson’s Rocket, August 1830.” In Writing the Rails: Train Adventures by the World’s Best-Loved Writers,
edited by Edward C. Goodman. New York: Black Dog and Leventhan Publishers,
2001.
Morgan,
Bryan. Early Trains. London: Camden
House Publishers, 1986.
Nock,
O. S. The Pocket Encyclopaedia of British
Steam Locomotives in Colour. Poole: Blandford Press Ltd., 1964.
Ross,
David, ed. The Encyclopaedia of Trains.
London: Amber Books Ltd., 2003.
Spielvogel,
Jackson J. Western Civilization Vol C:
Since 1789. Boston: Cengage, 2012.
Notes:
[1] Fanny Kemble, “A Trip
on Stephenson’s Rocket, August 1830”, in Writing
the Rails: Train Adventures by the World’s Best-Loved Writers, edited by
Edward C. Goodman, (New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2001) 11.
[2]Roger
Dettmer, “Prime Mover”, Engineering & Technology (17509637) 8,
no. 11 (December 2013), Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost,
accessed February 24, 2015, 61; Jackson J. Spielvogel, Western
Civilization Vol C: Since 1789, (Boston: Cengage, 2012), 599.
[9] David Ross, ed., The Encyclopaedia of Trains, (London:
Amber Books Ltd., 2003), 10; Colin Garratt, ed., The World Encyclopaedia of Locomotives, (London: Acropolis Books,
1997), 9.
[10] Bryan Morgan, Early Trains, (London: Camden House
Publishers, 1986), 7; Ross, 10; Spielvogel, 600.
[15] O. S. Nock, The Pocket Encyclopaedia of British Steam
Locomotives in Colour, (Poole: Blandford Press Ltd., 1964), 113; Ross, 12.
[19]Morgan, 17; Laura
Gardner, “Archive”, Professional Engineering 20, no. 7 (April
4, 2007), Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed
February 19, 2015), 80.
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