Wolverton, the first specimen of a railway town built on a plan to order, is
the central manufacturing and repairing shop for the locomotives north of
Birmingham.
The population entirely consists of men employed in the Company's service, as
mechanics, guards, enginemen, stokers, porters, labourers, their wives and
children, their superintendents, a clergyman, schoolmasters and
schoolmistresses, the ladies engaged on the refreshment establishment, and
the tradesmen attracted to Wolverton by the demand of the population.
This railway colony is well worth the attention of those who devote
themselves to an investigation of the social condition of the labouring
classes.
We have here a body of mechanics of intelligence above average, regularly
employed for ten and a-half hours during five days, and for eight hours
during the sixth day of the week, well paid, well housed, with schools for
their children, a reading-room and mechanics' institution at their disposal,
gardens for their leisure hours, and a church and clergyman exclusively
devoted to them. When work is ended, Wolverton is a pure republic--equality
reigns. There are no rich men or men of station: all are gentlemen. In
theory it is the paradise of Louis Blanc, only that, instead of the State, it
is a Company which pays and employs the army of workmen. It is true, that
during work hours a despotism rules, but it is a mild rule, tempered by
customs and privileges. And what are the results of this colony, in which
there are none idle, none poor, and few uneducated? Why, in many respects
gratifying, in some respects disappointing. The practical reformer will
learn more than one useful lesson from a patient investigation of the social
state of this great village.
[THE WOLVERTON VIADUCT: ill8.jpg]
Those who have not been in the habit of mixing with the superior class of
English skilled mechanics will be agreeably surprised by the intelligence,
information, and educational acquirements of a great number of the workmen
here. They will find men labouring for daily wages capable of taking a
creditable part in political, literary, and scientific discussion; but at the
same time the followers of George Sand, and French preachers of proletarian
perfection will not find their notions of the ennobling effects of manual
labour realised.
There are exceptions, but as a general rule, after a hard day's work, a man
is not inclined for study of any kind, least of all for the investigation of
abstract sciences; and thus it is that at Wolverton library, novels are much
more in demand than scientific treatises.
In Summer, when walks in the fields are pleasant, and men can work in their
gardens, the demand for books of any kind falls off.
Turning from the library to the mechanics' institution, pure science is not
found to have many charms for the mechanics of Wolverton. Geological and
astronomical lectures are ill attended, while musical entertainments,
dissolving views, and dramatic recitations are popular.
It must be confessed that dulness and monotony exercise a very unfavourable
influence on this comfortable colony. The people, not being Quakers, are not
content without amusement. They receive their appointed wages regularly, so
that they have not even the amusement of making and losing money. It would
be an excellent thing for the world if the kind, charitable, cold-blooded
people of middle age, or with middle-aged heads and hearts, who think that a
population may be ruled into an every-day life of alternate work, study, and
constitutional walks, without anything warmer than a weak simper from year's
end to year's end, would consult the residents of Wolverton and Crewe before
planning their next parallelogram.
We commend to amateur actors, who often need an audience, the idea of an
occasional trip to Wolverton. The audience would be found indulgent of very
indifferent performances.
But to turn from generalities to the specialities for which Wolverton is
distinguished, we will walk round the workshops by which a rural parish has
been colonised and reduced to a town shape.
* * * * *
WOLVERTON WORKSHOPS.--To attempt a description of the workshops of Wolverton
without the aid of diagrams and woodcuts would be a very unsatisfactory task.
It is enough to say that they should be visited not only by those who are
specially interested in machinery, but by all who would know what mechanical
genius, stimulated as it has been to the utmost during the last half century,
by the execution of profitable inventions, has been able to effect.
At Wolverton may be seen collected together in companies, each under command
of its captains or foremen, in separate workshops, some hundreds of the best
handicraftsmen that Europe can produce, all steadily at work, not without
noise, yet without confusion. Among them are a few men advanced in life of
the old generation; there are men of middle age; young men trained with all
the manual advantages of the old generation, and all the book and lecture
privileges of the present time; and then there are the rising generation of
apprentices--the sons of steam and of railroads. Among all it would be
difficult to find a bad-shaped head, or a stupid face--as for a drunkard not
one. It was once remarked to us by a gentleman at the head of a great
establishment of this kind, that there was something about the labour of
skilled workmen in iron that impressed itself upon their countenances, and
showed itself in their characters. Something of solidity, of determination,
of careful forethought; and really after going over many shops of
ironworkers, we are inclined to come to the same opinion. Machinery, while
superseding, has created manual labour. In a steam-engine factory, machinery
is called upon to do what no amount of manual labour could effect.
To appreciate the extraordinary amount of intellect and mental and manual
dexterity daily called into exercise, it would be necessary to have the
origin, progress to construction, trial, and amendment of a locomotive engine
from the period that the report of the head of the locomotive department in
favour of an increase of stock receives the authorization of the board of
directors. But such a history would be a book itself. After passing through
the drawing-office, where the rough designs of the locomotive engineer are
worked out in detail by a staff of draughtsmen, and the carpenters' shop and
wood-turners, where the models and cores for castings are prepared, we reach,
but do not dwell on the dark lofty hall, where the castings in iron and in
brass are made. The casting of a mass of metal of from five to twenty tons
on a dark night is a fine sight. The tap being withdrawn the molten liquor
spouts forth in an arched fiery continuous stream, casting a red glow on the
half-dressed muscular figures busy around, which would afford a subject for
an artist great in Turner or Danby-like effects.
But we hasten to the steam-hammer to see scraps of tough iron, the size of a
crown-piece, welded into a huge piston, or other instrument requiring the
utmost strength. At Wolverton the work is conducted under the supreme
command of the Chief Hammerman, a huge-limbed, jolly, good-tempered Vulcan,
with half a dozen boy assistants.
The steam-hammer, be it known, is the application of steam to a piston under
complete regulation, so that the piston, armed with a hammer, regularly,
steadily, perpendicularly descends as desired, either with the force of a
hundred tons or with a gentle tap, just sufficient to drive home a tin tack
and no more. At a word it stops midway in stroke, and at a word again it
descends with a deadly thump. On our visit, an attempt was being made to
execute in wrought, what had hitherto always been made in cast iron. Success
would effect a great saving in weight. The doors of the furnace were drawn
back, and a white glow, unbearable as the noon-day sun, was made visible,
long hooked iron poles were thrust in to fish for the prize, and presently a
great round mass of metal was poked out to the door of the fiery furnace--a
huge roll of glowing iron, larger than it was possible for any one or two men
to lift, even had it been cold. By ingenious contrivances it was slipped out
upon a small iron truck, dragged to the anvil of the steam-hammer, and under
the direction of Vulcan, not without his main strength, lodged upon the
block.
During the difficult operation of moving the white-red round ball, it was
beautiful to see the rapid disciplined intelligence by which the hammerman,
with word or sign, regulated the movements of his young assistants, each
armed with an iron lever.
At length the word was given, and thump, thump, like an earthquake the steam-
hammer descended, rapidly reducing the red-hot Dutch cheese shape to the
flatter proportions of a mighty Double Gloucester, all the while the great
smith was turning and twisting it about so that each part should receive its
due share of hammering, and that the desired shape should be rapidly
attained, sometimes with one hand, sometimes with the other, he interposed a
flat poker between the red mass and the hammer, sharing a vibration that was
powerful enough to dislocate the shoulder of any lesser man. "Hold," he
cried: the elephant-like machine stopped. He took and hauled the great ball
into a new position. "Go on," he shouted: the elephant machine went on, and
again the red sparks flew as though a thousand Homeric blacksmiths had been
striking in unison, until it was time again to thrust the half-welded cheese
into the fiery furnace, and again it was dragged forth, and the jolly giant
bent, and tugged, and sweated, and commanded,--he did not swear over his task.
At length having succeeded in making the unwieldy lump assume an approach to
the desired shape, he observed, in a deep, bass, chuckling, triumphant aside,
to the engineer who was looking on, "I'm not a very little one, but I think
if I was as big again you'd try what I was made of."
Since that day we have learned that the experiment has been completely
successful, with a great diminution in the weight and an increase of the
strength of an important part of a locomotive.
We have dwelt upon the picture because it combined mechanical with manual
dexterity. A hammerman who might sit for one of Homer's blacksmith heroes,
and machinery which effects in a few minutes what an army of such hammermen
could not do.
If our painters of mythological Vulcans and sprawling Satyrs want to display
their powers over flesh and muscle, they may find something real and not
vulgar among our iron factories.
After seeing the operations of forging or of casting, we may take a walk
round the shops of the turners and smiths. In some, Whitworth's beautiful
self-acting machines are planing or polishing or boring holes, under charge
of an intelligent boy; in others lathes are ranged round the walls, and a
double row of vices down the centre of the long rooms. Solid masses of cast
or forged metal are carved by the keen powerful lathe tools like so much box-
wood, and long shavings of iron and steel sweep off as easily as deal
shavings from a carpenter's plane. At the long row of vices the smiths are
hammering and filing away with careful dexterity. No mean amount of judgment
in addition to the long training needed for acquiring manual skill, is
requisite before a man can be admitted into this army of skilled mechanics;
for every locomotive contains many hundred pieces, each of which must be
fitted as carefully as a watch.
If we fairly contemplate the result of these labours, created by the
inventive genius of a line of ingenious men, headed by Watt and Stephenson,
these workshops are a more imposing sight than the most brilliant review of
disciplined troops. It is not mere strength, dexterity, and obedience, upon
which the locomotive builder calculates for the success of his design, but
also upon the separate and combined intelligence of his army of mechanics.
Considering that in annually increasing numbers, factories for the building
of locomotive, of marine steam-engines, of iron ships, and of various kinds
of machinery, are established in different parts of the kingdom, and that
hence every year education becomes more needed, more valued, and more
extended among this class of mechanics, it is impossible to doubt that the
training, mental and moral, obtained in factories like those of Wolverton,
Crewe, Derby, Swindon, and other railway shops, and in great private
establishments like Whitworth's and Roberts' of Manchester, Maudslay and
Field's of London, Ransome and May of Ipswich, Wilson of Leeds, and
Stephenson of Newcastle, must produce by imitative inoculation a powerful
effect on the national character. The time has passed when the best workmen
were the most notorious drunkards; in all skilled trades self-respect has
made progress.
A few passenger carriages are occasionally built at Wolverton as experiments.
One, the invention of Mr. J. M'Connel, the head of the locomotive department,
effects several important improvements. It is a composite carriage of
corrugated iron, lined with wood to prevent unpleasant vibration, on six
wheels, the centre wheels following the leading wheels round curves by a very
ingenious arrangement. This carriage holds sixty second-class passengers and
fifteen first-class, beside a guard's brake, which will hold five more; all
in one body. The saving in weight amounts to thirty-five per cent. A number
of locomotives have lately been built from the designs of the same eminent
engineer, to meet the demands of the passenger traffic in excursion trains
for July and August, 1851.
It must be understood that although locomotives are built at Wolverton, only
a small proportion of the engines used on the line are built by the company,
and the chief importance of the factory at Wolverton is as a repairing shop,
and school for engine-drivers.
Every engine has a number. When an engine on any part of the lines in
connection with Wolverton needs repair, it is forwarded with a printed form,
filled up and signed by the superintendent of the station near which the
engine has been working. As thus--"Engine 60, axle of driving-wheel out of
gauge, fire-box burned out," etc.
This invoice or bill of particulars is copied into a sort of day-book, to be
eventually transferred into the account in the ledger, in which No. 60 has a
place.
The superintendent next in command under the locomotive engineer-in-chief,
places the lame engine in the hands of the foreman who happens to be first
disengaged. The foreman sets the workmen he can spare at the needful
repairs. When completed, the foreman makes a report, which is entered in the
ledger, opposite the number of the engine, stating the repairs done, the
men's names who did it, and how many days, hours, and quarters of an hour
each man was employed. The engine reported sound is then returned to its
station, with a report of the repairs which have been effected. The whole
work is completed on the principle of a series of links of responsibility.
The engineer-in-chief is answerable to the directors for the efficiency of
the locomotives; he examines the book, and depends on his superintendent. The
superintendent depends on the foreman to whom the work was entrusted; and,
should the work be slurred, must bear the shame, but can turn upon the
workmen he selected for the job.
In fact, the whole work of this vast establishment is carried on by dividing
the workmen into small companies, under the superintendence of an officer
responsible for the quantity and quality of the work of his men.
The history of each engine, from the day of launching, is so kept, that, so
long as it remains in use, every separate repair, with its date and the names
of the men employed on it, can be traced. Allowing, therefore, for the
disadvantage as regards economy of a company, as compared with private
individuals, the system at Wolverton is as effective as anything that could
well be imagined.
The men employed at Wolverton station in March, 1851, numbered 775, of whom 4
were overlookers, 9 were foremen, 4 draughtsmen, 15 clerks, 32 engine-
drivers, 21 firemen, and 119 labourers; the rest were mechanics and
apprentices. The weekly wages amounted to 929 pounds 11s. 10d.
Of course these men have, for the most part, wives and families, and so with
shopkeepers, raise the population of the railway town of Wolverton to about
2,000, inhabiting a series of uniform brick houses, in rectangular streets,
about a mile distant from the ancient parish church of Wolverton, and the
half-dozen houses constituting the original parish.
For the benefit of this population, the directors have built a church,
schools for boys, for girls, and for infants, which are not the least
remarkable or interesting parts of this curious town.
The clergyman of the railway church, the Rev. George Waight, M.A., has been
resident at Wolverton from the commencement of the railway buildings. His
difficulties are great; but he is well satisfied with his success. In
railway towns there is only one class, and that so thoroughly independent,
that the influence of the clergyman can only rest with his character and
talents.
The church is thinly attended in the morning, for hard-working men like to
indulge in rest one day in the week; in the evening it is crowded, and the
singing far above average.
To the schools we should like to have devoted a whole chapter now, but must
reserve an account of one of the most interesting results of railway
enterprise.
There is a literary and scientific institution, with a library attached.
Scientific lectures and scientific books are very little patronized at
Wolverton; astronomy and geology have few students; but there is a steady
demand for a great number of novels, voyages, and travels; and musical
entertainments are well supported.
The lecture-room is extremely miserable, quite unfit for a good concert, as
there is not even a retiring room, but the directors are about to build a
better one, and while they are about it, they might as well build a small
theatre. Some such amusement is much needed; for want of relaxation in the
monotony of a town composed of one class, without any public amusements, the
men are driven too often to the pipe and pot, and the women to gossip.
In the summer, the gardens which form a suburb are much resorted to, and the
young men go to cricket and football; but still some amusements, in which all
the members of every family could join, would improve the moral tone of
Wolverton.
Work, wages, churches, schools, libraries, and scientific lectures are not
alone enough to satisfy a large population of any kind, certainly not a
population of hard-handed workers.
* * * * *
WOLVERTON EMBANKMENT was one of the difficulties in railway making, which at
one period interested the public; at present it is not admitted among
engineers that there are any difficulties. The ground was a bog, and as fast
as earth was tipped in at the top it bulged out at the bottom. When, after
great labour, this difficulty had been overcome, part of the embankment,
fifty feet in height, which contained alum shale, decomposed, and spontaneous
combustion ensued. The amazement of the villagers was great, but finally
they came to the conclusion expressed by one of them, in "Dang it, they can't
make this here railway arter all, and they've set it o' fire to cheat their
creditors."
On leaving Wolverton, before arriving at Roade, a second-class station, after
clearing a short cutting, looking westerly, we catch a glimpse of the tower
of the church of Grafton, where, according to tradition, Edward IV. married
Lady Gray of Groby. The last interview between Henry VIII. and Cardinal
Campeggio, relative to his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, took place at
the Mansion House of this parish, which was demolished in 1643.
About this spot we enter Northamptonshire, and passing Roade, pause at
Blisworth station, where there is a neat little inn.