TWIXT
TYNE AND TWEED.
By RICHARD WELFORD,
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL Il*
LONDON: WALTER SCOTTS
LTD., PATERNOSTER SQUARE, AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. 1895.
Timothy Hackworth,
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEER AND LOCAL PREACHER.
ÔThe steam engine . . . is the king of machines,
and a permanent realisation of the genii of eastern fable, whose supernatural
powers were occasionally at the command of man.' Dr. ARNOTT.
THREE
natives of Tyneside, born in adjoining parishes, with less than eight years
interval separating the oldest from the youngest of them, were the chief
instruments in creating a social and commercial revolution to which the history
of mankind offers no parallel. Whatsoever may be their respective claims to
priority of invention or utility of design, whatsoever opinion may be formed as
to the degree in which each of them contributed to the general result, these
three industrial heroes - William Hedley, George Stephenson, and Timothy
Hackworth - undoubtedly solved amongst them a problem that had lingered long in
the lap of experiment and expectation; they demonstrated the practical and
profitable adaptation of the power of steam to locomotion, and gave us our
present railway system.
Timothy
Hackworth was born at Wylam, where his father, John
Hackworth, was foreman of the colliery blacksmiths, on the 22nd December 1786.
He received his education, such as it was, at the village school, and, at the
age of fourteen, was apprenticed to the owners of the colliery to learn his
father's trade, and to follow a calling in which his progenitors had
distinguished themselves for many generations. Two years after he had entered
upon his indentures - the father died, and upon Timothy devolved the care of
providing for his mother and the family. He was a studious and painstaking lad,
whose devotion to his work and his home secured the goodwill of his fellow-workmen,
attracted the sympathy of his neighbours, and, above all, won the confidence of
his employers. As soon as his apprenticeship expired, in 1807, the colliery
authorities rewarded his diligence, intelligence, and skill by raising him to
his father's post of foreman smith.
While
Timothy Hackworth was serving under indentures, colliery managers were
speculating upon the probabilities of using steam as a motive-power in the
haulage of coal. Christopher Blackett, the owner, and William
Hedley the viewer, of Wylam Colliery, took a lively and intelligent interest in
the matter. So early as 1805 a locomotive engine had been made to Mr. Blackett order
at Whinfield's Foundry in Gateshead. It was a failure but Mr. Blackett was not
discouraged. Taking up the wooden rails of his wagon-way and replacing them by
cast-iron plates. he made Wylam Colliery the theatre of interesting
experiments. Mr. Hedley had proved to him, by repeated trials, that the law of
gravitation was the true basis of locomotion - in other words, that smooth
wheels would work upon smooth rails by pressure of the weight above them In 1812,
Mr. Blackett directed that Hackworth and his smiths, assisted by Thomas Waters,
a Gateshead iron-founder, should build a locomotive from Mr. Hedley's design.
This engine, constructed with a cast-iron boiler, a single cylinder, a
fly-wheel, and a straight fire-tube, was tried in February, 1813, and proved
defective. Another engine was put in hand, and Hackworth, helped by Jonathan
Forster, the colliery engine-wright succeeded to admiration. Wrought-iron was
used for the boiler, the fire-tube was made to return to the chimney, which was
placed at the same end of the boiler as the furnace, and thus equipped, the
engine drew eight loaded coal wagons after it, at the rate of four miles an
hour. The victory was won. Mr. Hedley had demonstrated the soundness of his
ideas; Hackworth had brought them into effective operation; the era of steam
locomotion had begun.
While
these experiments were in progress Timothy Hackworth had received serious
impressions on the subject of religion. In a list of candidates for
confirmation at Ovingharn in 1801, now in the possession of Mr. Ralph Nelson,
of Bishop Auckland his name appears, but at the beginning of 1811 he united
himself to the Methodist body, and soon afterwards, having developed
considerable gifts of speaking and exhorting, his name was entered in the Circuit
Plan as a local preacher. Fidelity to his religious convictions severed the tie
which bound him to Wylam Colliery. One Sunday, in 1815, as we read in Lawsons
"Wesleyan Local Preachers," he was passing the pit to fulfill a
preaching appointment when a fellow workman accosted him with, 41 WhereÕs thee
gannin?" Hackworth answered, ÒI am going to preach." Is thee not
gannin' to de this wark ?" ÒI
have other work than that to do today." ÒWeel, if thooÕll not, somebody
else will and thoo'll lose thee jobÓ ÒLose or not
lose, I shall not break the Sabbath,Ó rejoined Hackworth and passed on to his
engagement. The man's prediction proved to be accurate. The owner of Wylam
Colliery, or his representative, discharged a most faithful servant because he
refused to work on a Sunday.
Dismissed
from Wylam, Mr. Hackworth obtained the foremanship of the smiths at Walbottle
Colliery, and there he remained until 1824. In the meantime George Stephenson,
improving upon the Wylam experiments, had established a great reputation as a
railway pioneer, and had his hands full of business. At the date just mentioned
he was undertaking a survey for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and
required a competent man to superintend, during his absence the manufactory of
steam engines which he had opened in Newcastle. He applied to the agent of Walbottle
Colliery for the loan of Timothy Hackworth, and the latter, nothing loth,
accepted the position. So well did he manage the concern that Stephenson
offered him strong inducements - half his own share in the manufactory, it is said
- to remain. For reasons of his own, Hackworth declined, refused at the same
time an offer to accompany an exploring expedition to the gold and silver mines
of Venezuela, New Granada, and Trinidad and determined to start in business for
himself.
His
arrangements for commencing to build engines were approaching completion when
he received through Mr. StephensonÕs recommendation, an offer of the post of
resident engineer to the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company. This was an
office worthy of his acceptance, and he closed with the offer. In the books of
the Company, under date May 13th, 1825, is the following record of
his appointment - ÒJohn Dixon
reports that he has arranged with Timothy Hackworth to come and settle on the
line, particularly to have the superintendence of the permanent and locomotive
engines. The preliminary arrangement as regards salary is £150 per annum. the
Company to find a house, and pay for his house rent and fire."
At
Darlington, Timothy Hackworth began a system of laborious research and rigorous
investigation into the principles of locomotive mechanism and their adaptation
to the requirements of traffic, which made the Stockton and Darlington line famous
in the history of railway enterprise. Five miles of the railway consisted of
inclined planes, worked with stationary engines, and to the safe and effective
arrangement of these planes he devoted in the first instance the greater part
of his time and energies. He designed double-acting drums for the Brusselton
Incline, and to fixed a drum upon the Etherley Incline that it worked the
coal-waggons, up and down a long bank and a short bank with a minimum of strain
upon the engine. Among other of his devices were the discharge-hook by which
the ropes could be detached from waggons in motion, the drag-frame attached to
last carriages in ascending inclines with the object of arresting precipitate
descent in case of accident, and the switch, fixed a short distance from the
top of inclines, by which waggons could be thrown off the line if they happen
to run over the bank head.
But
his greatest achievement on the Stockton and Darlington
line was the construction of an engine on a new
principle~ "the boldest step in mechanical
construction ever concentrated in a single effort."
The locomotives in use upon the line worked so badly
that the directors contemplated the use of fixed
engines over the whole of their mileage. Hackworth
expressed confidence in his own ability to build
a locomotive that would travel with greater speed,
draw a heavier load, and consume less fuel than
the imperfect specimens which the Company were running.
Permission was granted and he constructed, in 1827,
the engine celebrated in railway history as the
Royal George. In this engine,
departing from the usual plan of having two upright
cylinders working on different shafts, Hackworth
inverted his cylinders and, placing them on opposite
sides of the boilers applied their connecting rods
to actuate the same axle-tree. At the some time,
in lieu of the straight flue employed in Blenkinsop's
and, StephensonÕs engines, he adopted the return
fire-tube which was used by Trevethick and Hedley;
and by throwing the escaping steam into the chimney
throug a narrow orifice, he greatly augmented the
force of the stem blast, and consequently the rapidity
of combustion in the furnace. Finally, he placed
the engine upon six whees all coupled which yielded
an increase of adhesion upon the rails in every
state of the weather. The Royal George was "the
first of a new type of engine and the nearest approach
to the modem locomotive of any that had yet been
built.
Although
the superiority of locomotive over stationary engines was practically
demonstrated by the construction of Hackworth's masterpiece the question of
their relative utility continued to be debated with considerable vigour. The Liverpool
and Manchester Company were not satisfied with their locomotives, and they
appointed a deputation of engineers to visit the North of England and inspect
the engines at work them. The report of the deputation being unfavourable to
the locomotive, Mr. Robert Stephenson applied to Hackworth for arguments in its
favour. He informed him that the deputation Òstate it positively as their
opinion that a locomotive engine of ten horsepower will not convey more than
ten tons exclusive of the waggons, at the rate of ten miles an hour in winter
time, and in summer the same engine will take 13-1/2 tons." And he added, ÒLet me have your general opinion as to
the locomotive engine system. Is it as convenient as any other? Would you
consider 13-1/2 tons in summer and ten tons in winter a fair performance for a
good locomotive engine?Ó To which request Hackworth sent the following reply:
"The
statement that a complete locomotive will take but 10 tons at 10 miles an hour
is quite at variance with facts. Four of our waggons, laden for depots frequently
take from 12 to 13 tons of coals exclusive of the waggons, Our engines never
take less than 16 laden waggons in winter, and in summer from 20 to 24 and 32
laden, and can maintain a speed of five miles an hour. Engines thus loaded have
frequently traveled at nine miles an hour, sometimes more. I am verily
convinced that a swift engine, upon a well-conditioned railway will combine
profit and simplicity, and will afford such facility as has not hitherto been
known. I am well satisfed that an engine, of the weight you mention will convey,
on a level, in winter, 30 tons of goods 10 miles per hour exclusive of
carriages, and 40 tons in summer exclusive of carriages. ... I hear the
Liverpool company have concluded to use fixed engines. Some will look on this
with surprise; but as you can well afford it, it is all for the good of the
science and of the trade to try both plans. Do not discompose yourself, my dear
air; if you express, your manly, firm, decided opinion, you have done your part
as their adviser; and if it happen to be read some day in the newspapers
'Whereas the Liverpool and Manchester Railway has been strangled by ropes,Õ we
shall not accuse you of guilt in being accessory either before or after the fact.Ó
In
the celebrated trial of locomotives upon the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
in 1929, Hackworth entered the Sanspariel, an engine built upon the same principle
as the Royal George
but it broke down, and the prize of £500 was awarded to the Rocket built by George and Robert Stephenson. The
Sanspariel is
described as "a marvel of mechanism, considering the conditions under
which it was made." It was sold to the Bolton Railway Company, after it
had done some service elsewhere, and gave great satisfaction.
In
another competition, which was opened the same year by his employer, Hackworth
was more successful. The Stockton and Darlington Company offered 150 and 75
guineas respectively for the best and second best plans, sections, and estimates
for staiths, machinery, etc, to be used in the shipment of coals at
Middlesbrough, and he obtained the first prize. Other remarkable achievements
in locomotive engineering followed. A new engine, the Globe, with which he opened the branch line
from Stockton to Middlesbrough, showed a marked improvement, and still further
ingenuity was displayed in the Majestic, Lord Brougham,
William IV., etc. In
some of these engines Hackworth introduced a number of small copper tubes, by
which the area of heating surface was increased; in others these tubes were
made to return, with the object of still further augmenting the heating
surface; in all of them he shortened the stroke, and made the whole structure
more compact and more easy to manipulate.
When
Mr. Hackworth had given to the Stockton and Darlington line nine years of
service as engineer and locomotive manager, the conditions of his engagement
were changed. He had won the entire confidence of the directors, and in 1834
they placed their machinery and workshops at his disposal, and contracted with
him for the entire haulage of the line. The arrangement lasted till, 1840 when
he erected the Soho Engine Works, Shildon and commenced business on his own
account. At the jubilee celebration of the Stockton and Darlington line,
September 27th, 1875, two of the engines which he built for the Company on the
eve of his departure to his own establishmen4 the Auckland and the Dart were exhibited. Although thirty-six
years had passed away since they left his hands, they were described a still
capable of service, and one of them, the Dart, as actually running in daily use.
To
Timothy Hackworth, not the locomotive engine alone, but the whole system of
colliery haulage is indebted for many ingenious contrivances. Improvements
equally as effective as those which he introduced into the working of inclined
planes, he brought into operation among winding engines and general mining
machinery He had a great fancy for the rotary engine, and in 1836 patented one.
About the more economical and effective smelting of iron, too, he had original
ideas but his active labours with the locomotive did not afford him the
necessary time to elaborate them.
Throughout
his life, Mr. Hackworth retained his connection as a Methodist class leader and
local preacher. "Naturally endowed with great moral courage and fortitude
of mind," writes one who knew him, "he possessed a fluency and
happiness of expression, with a thread of delicate humour and anecdote pervading
his discourses which charmed all who listened to his artless eloquence. He
loved retirement, and preferred the joys of private life to worldly honours,
which caused him, though a public character, not to be universally known.
Constitutionally healthy and robust, his life was one of great activity, both mental
and physical; every moment was pressed into service."
In
this happy state of mind and body he continued till his death, which occurred
after a few dayÕs illness on the 7th of July, 1850, in the sixty-fourth year of
his age.