Part 5 (1/2)
Asda sold the carriage and the patent for a large sum of money, and swindled Maceroni out of all his share For years the inventor was in the direst extre the support of The General Steaes under his patent Disagreeain brought to Maceroni disaster, from which he was never able to recover
RICHARD ROBERTS
Born in 1789 Died in March, 1864
Roberts was best known as a Manchester, England, engineer, of the firm of Sharp, Roberts & Co He built a steam road locomotive that was first tried in December, 1833 Three months later the e went out under the guidance of Mr Roberts, with forty passengers It proceeded about a mile and a half, made a difficult turn where the road was narrow, and returned to the works without accident The maximum speed on the level was nearly twenty miles an hour Hills werespeedily put in complete and effective condition for actual service
During another experimental trip in April of the same year, the locomotiveway, allowing the steam to escape and the fuel to be scattered about No one was seriously injured, and none of the passengers was hurt
Roberts invented the coe This gear superseded claw clutches, friction bands, ratchet-wheels, and other arrange-wheels, and at the saine to turn the sharpest corner In 1839, Roberts invented an arrange-wheels at all ti the latter years of his life this faly straitened circumstances, and he died in poverty
JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL
Born at Parkhead, near Glasgow, Scotland, May 8, 1808 Died June 8, 1882, at Ventnor
The father of John Scott Russell was David Russell, a Scottish clergyinally intended for the church His y, and he entered a workshop in order to learn the trade of engineering Studying at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow, he was graduated froe In 1832, upon the death of Sir John Leslie, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University, Russell was elected to fill the vacancy teations into the nature of the sea waves, as a preli the forms of shi+ps As a result of these researches he developed the wave-line systeold ineers, and was elected a member of the Council of that Society for a paper that he read ”on the laws by which water opposes resistance to the er of the shi+pbuilding words at Greenock, and under his supervision and according to his designs several shi+ps were built with lines based on his wave syste these were four of the new fleet of the West India Mail Company
Russell removed to London in 1844, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1847 He was vice-president of the Institute of Civil Engineers and secretary of the Society of Arts For many years he was a shi+pbuilder on the Thames, and supervised the construction of the celebrated steamshi+p Great Eastern He was one of the promoters and vice-president of the Institute of Naval Architects, and a pioneer in advocating the construction of iron-clad men-of-war He published many papers, principally upon naval architecture
It hile he was residing in Edinburgh that he took out a patent for a steam locomotive to be used on the common roads The boiler that he invented was multi-tubular, with the furnace and the return tubes on the same level, and similar to a marine boiler The boiler everywhere consisted of opposite and parallel surfaces, and these surfaces were connected by stays of small diameter The copper plates of the boiler were only one-tenth of an inch thick When put to actual test the weakness of the boiler thus constructed was fully deine had two vertical cylinders, twelve inches in diaine wasin its flexure described, at a particular point, such a circle as was also described by the eularities in the road so that they would not interfere with the proper working of the spur gearing Exhaust steam was turned into the chimney to create a blast Water and coke were carried on a separate tender on theels, coupled to the rear of the engine Spare tenders, filled, were kept in readiness at different stations on the road These tenders, ers To work the locomotive three persons were required, a steersineer on the back seat outside above the engines, and a fireman stationed on the footplate in front of the boiler
On the order of the Steae Company, of Scotland, six of these coaches were built by the Grove House Engine Works, of Edinburgh They were substantially constructed and very elaborately fitted up As was said at the tiance of the e” They ran very successfully for soow, and Paisley
There was a service of six coaches once an hour Each carriage accoers inside and twenty outside, and soers, and the necessary fuel and water These dogcarts were used as relays on the road, being kept ready constantly Public opposition to these coaches developed here as it had done in London about the saround that they wore out the roads too rapidly Obstructions of stones, logs of wood, and other things were placed in their way, but the coaches generally went on in spite of these Ordinary horse-drawn road carriages were ed and hindered than the Russell coaches, and even heavy carts were compelled to abandon travel on the obstructed roads and take roundabout courses, greatly to the discomfiture of the drivers
One day, however, a heavy strain, unusually severe, caused by jolting over the rough road, broke a wheel, and the weight of the coach falling on the boiler caused an explosion Five persons were killed, and as a result of this accident the Court of Session interdicted the further travel of these carriages in Scotland The Steaainst the trustees of the turnpike road for having coow and Paisley road by ”wantonly, wrongfully andmasses of metal, stones and rubbish on the said road, in order to create such annoyance and obstruction asto the plaintiffs,” but nothing seeer used in Scotland, two of Russell's coaches were sent to London
There they were engaged in running with passengers between London and Greenwich, or Kew Bridge Several trips were made to Windsor After about a year they were offered for sale, and, on exhibition preparatory to sale, they started every day from Hyde Park Corner to make a journey to Haotten
Had conditions been reat success in his land as in his water vehicles He was a man of rare scientific attain put him in the front rank of naval architects and builders of his day In addition to his work, alreadysteamer to transport railway trains across Lake Constance
W H CHURCH
A physician of Birave many years to the study of steam locomotion Several patents were secured by him between 1832 and 1835, and in the latter year a coht out
The Church vehicle had a framework of united iron plates or bars, bolted on each side of the ork to obtain strength Well trussed and braced, this framework enclosed a space between a hind and fore body of the carriage, and of the saine, boiler, and other machinery The boiler consisted of a series of vertical tubes, placed side by side, through each of which a pipe passed, and was secured at the bottom of the boiler tube; the interior pipe constituted the flue, which first passed in through a boiler tube, and was then bent like a syphon, and passed down another until it reached as low or lower than the bottoeneral flue in co apparatus Two fans were employed, one to blow in air, and the other to draw it out; they orked by straps froe were constructed with the view to rendering theree, in two different ways: First, the felloes were made of several successive layers of broad wooden hoops, covered with a thin iron tire, having lateral straps to bind the hoops together; second, these binding straps were connected by hinge joints to a kind of flat steel springs, somewhat curved, which for spokes were intended to obviate the necessity, in a great s, and the elasticity of the periphery was designed so that the yielding of the circle should prevent the wheel fro
Church also proposed, in addition to spring felloes, spring spokes, and the ordinary springs, to es, and for that purpose provided two or e, in a vertical position, closed at top, and furnished with a piston, with packing si of the hydraulic press This piston was kept covered with oil, to preserve it in good order, and a piston rod connected it with the supporting fra steam cylinders suspended on the steam and exhaust pipes over the crank shaft The crank shaft and driving-wheel axle were connected byabout pitched pulleys
To introduce the Church coach, the London and Biranized The first carriage built for the co circus van, elaborately ornae spheroidal wheel in front It carried about forty passengers on top, in omnibus fashi+on, and the driver sat on a raised seat near the roof A fair rate of speed was maintained, fifteen ed, and horses hauled the engine back to the factory Other carriages were subsequently brought out, but they all failed to h roads that existed at that tiland
JEAN JOSEPH ETIENNE LENOIR
Born at Mussy-la-Ville, Luxe, January 12, 1822 Died, July, 1900, at La Varnne Chemevieves, near Paris