century were engaged in trying to solve the problem of steam carriage
locomotion on the common highways. The story of his work in this direction
is fully told by himself in his Narrative of Twelve Years' Experiments,
1824-36, Demonstrative of the Practicability and Advantage of Employing
Steam Carriages on Common Roads, a book published in London, in 1838. This
volume contains a full account of his labors, and descriptions of all the
carriages that he built and ran. The following extract from the
introduction of the book shows in what esteem Hancock regarded himself and
what estimate he placed upon the value of his work:
"The author of these pages believes he should offend alike against truth
and genuine modesty were he to yield to any of the steam carriage
inventors who have appeared in his day, in a single particular of desert;
he began earlier (with one abortive exception) and has persevered longer
and more unceasingly than any of them. He was the first to run a steam
carriage for hire on a common road, and is still the only person who has
ventured in a steam vehicle to traverse the most crowded streets of the
metropolis at the busiest periods of the day; he has built a greater
number of steam carriages (if not better) than anyone else, and has been
thus enabled to try a greater variety of forms of construction, out of
which to choose the best."
In 1824, Hancock invented a steam engine in which the ordinary cylinder
and piston were replaced by two flexible steam receivers, composed of
several layers of canvas firmly united together by coatings of dissolved
caoutchouc, or india-rubber, and thus enabled to resist a pressure of
steam of sixty pounds upon the square inch. This engine he tried to adapt
to steam carriages, but found that he could not get the requisite degree
of power for locomotion, although it worked very well as a stationary
engine of four horse-power at his factory in Stratford. Next he invented a
tubular boiler with sixteen horizontal tubes, each connected with each
other by lesser tubes, so that the water or steam might circulate through
the entire series. This boiler was subsequently changed by arranging the
tubes vertically, and a patent was taken out in 1825.
After further experiments and improvements, Hancock finally made a vehicle
to travel on three wheels, getting power from a pair of vibrating or
trunnion engines fixed upon the crank-axle of the fore wheels.
Experimental trips of this carriage were made from the Stratford shop to
Epping Forest, Paddington, Hounslow, Croydon, Fulham, and elsewhere. Some
changes were made in the vehicle, and finally the trunnion engines were
put aside and fixed ones substituted.
This improved carriage, the first in a long series built by Hancock, was
named the Infant. The body was in the form of a double-body coach, or
omnibus, with seats for passengers inside and out. The bulk of the
machinery was placed in the rear of the carriage, a boiler and a fire
being beneath it. Between the boiler and the passengers' seats was the
engine and a place for the engineer. A pair of inverted fixed engines
working vertically on a crank-shaft furnished the power. The steering
apparatus was in front. The whole carriage was on one frame supported by
four springs on the axle of each wheel. The carriage was capable of
carrying sixteen passengers besides the engineer and guide. Its total
weight, including coke and water, but exclusive of attendants and
passengers, was about three and one-half tons. The wheel tires were three
and one-half inches wide, and the diameter of the hind wheels four feet.
In February, 1831, the Infant began to run on regular trips between
Stratford and London. In 1832 a second carriage, similar to the Infant,
was built, and called the Era. It was constructed for the London and
Brighton Steam Carriage Company, to ply between London and Greenwich. The
following year a third carriage, the Enterprise, was completed, for the
London and Paddington Steam Car Company, and was run between London and
Paddington.
Hancock took the Infant on a long trip from Stratford to London and
Brighton, in October, 1832. Eleven passengers were carried, and the
carriage kept a speed of nine miles an hour on the level, and six to eight
miles an hour up grade. On the return one mile up hill was made at the
rate of seventeen miles an hour. Another trip to Brighton was made in
September of the next year at an average speed of twelve miles an hour
actual traveling. At Brighton the new carriage attracted much attention,
and was exhibited for several days on trips in and around the town. After
the Enterprise, the Autopsy came from the Hancock shops, in September,
1833. This carriage was run on trial about Brighton and in London streets,
and for about a month was run for hire between Finsbury Square and
Pentonville.
A small steam drag or tug to draw an attached coach or omnibus was the
next production of the Hancock establishment, which had already attained
more than local fame. This was built for a Herr Voigtlander, of Vienna,
and on one of its trial trips it carried ten persons and an attached
four-wheeled carriage with six persons in it. With this load a speed of
fourteen miles an hour on the level was attained, and eight to nine miles
an hour on up grades.
Beginning in August, 1834, the Era and the Autopsy were run daily in
London between the City, Moorgate and Paddington. During the ensuing four
months over four thousand passengers were carried. Each coach carried from
ten to twelve passengers, and the trip from Moorgate to Paddington, five
miles, was made in a half hour, including stops. On the trial trip a speed
of twelve miles an hour, exclusive of stops, was maintained.
Later in the same year the Era, with its name changed to the Erin, was
sent to Dublin, Ireland, where it was exhibited and run in and about the
city, by Hancock, for eight days, before it was reshipped to Stratford.
Next in turn came a drag of larger size than any before built, with an
engine of greater capacity. On the trial trip this drew, on a level road,
at a speed of ten miles an hour, three omnibuses and one stage coach with
fifty passengers. In July, 1835, the trip to Reading, a distance of
thirty-eight miles, was made in three hours forty minutes twenty-five
seconds; actual running time, exclusive of stops, three hours eight
minutes ten seconds, at a moving rate of over twelve miles an hour.
Subsequently, this drag was made over into a carriage, like the others of
the Hancock type, fitted for eighteen passengers, and named the Automaton.
In August, 1835, the Erin ran from London to Marlborough, a distance of
seventy-eight miles, in seven hours forty-nine minutes, exclusive of
stops, averaging nine and six-tenths miles an hour. The return from
Marlborough to London was accomplished in seven hours thirty-six minutes,
exclusive of stops, an average of nine and eight-tenths miles an hour. In
the same month the Erin made the run from London to Birmingham at the rate
of ten miles an hour.
In 1836, Hancock ran all his carriages on a regular route on the Stratford
and Islington roads for a period of twenty weeks, making in that time
seven hundred and twelve trips, covering four thousand two hundred miles,
and carrying twelve thousand seven hundred and sixty-one passengers.
After running his carriages for several years dissensions in the companies
that were promoting the new means of travel, and the increasing efficiency
of railways, led to the discontinuance of Hancock's energy in this
direction. Thereafter he built only a steam phaeton for his personal use;
this had seats for three, and was used about the City, Hyde Park and the
London suburbs. Hancock's steam vehicles were ten in number--the
experimental three-wheeler, the trunnion-engine Infant, the fixed engine
Infant, the Era, afterward the Erin, the Enterprise, the Autopsy, the
Austrian drag, the Irish drag, the Automaton, and the phaeton.
Hancock turned his attention in the later years of his life to developing
the use of india-rubber, in connection with his brother, Thomas Hancock,
who was one of the foremost rubber manufacturers of England. He secured
several patents for improvements in manufacturing rubber.
At the time when Hancock was at work upon his steam carriages, Gurney was
also in the front and there was considerable jealousy between the two. Dr.
Lardner and others were active in exploiting Gurney, while Hancock was
supported in controversies by Alexander Gordon, Luke Hebert and others.
That Hancock achieved most in the way of definite results and that his
experimenting and accomplishments were more markedly along thoroughly
intelligent and conservatively practical mechanical lines than any of his
rivals is now generally conceded. His carriages were admirable productions
as road vehicles, well-built, attractive and comfortable.
WILLIAM T. JAMES
An engineer of New York, who was engaged in experimenting about 1829 James
made, in his shop in Eldridge Court, several small models of vehicles that
proved sufficiently satisfactory. His first engine had two-inch cylinders
and four-inch stroke. This ran around a track on the floor of his shop,
and drew a train of four cars, carrying an apprentice boy on each car.
James' second locomotive was mounted on three wheels, two drivers in the
rear and a steering wheel, and it ran on the floor or sidewalk.
In 1829, James, satisfied with his experimenting, built a steam carriage
capable of carrying passengers, and with this he made very good time over
the streets and roadways in and about the metropolis. He then adopted the
rotary cylinders instead of the reciprocating, in his engine, which had
two six-inch cylinders, and was supported on three wheels. On each
cylinder were two fixed eccentrics, one for the forward and one for the
backing motion. The slide valve of one cylinder had a half-inch lap at
each end, and exhausted its steam into the other.
In 1830, James made his fourth full-size steam carriage. This was a
three-wheeled vehicle, the rear wheels being drivers three feet in
diameter, and the third the front or steering wheel. In 1831, in a
competition for the best locomotive engine adapted to the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, James built his fifth locomotive, and the first one
to run on rails. His engine did not secure the prize, but the company,
thinking his machine contained valuable ideas, entered into an arrangement
with him for further experimenting.
FRANCIS MACERONI
Born in Manchester, England, in 1788. Died in London, July 25, 1846.
The father of Francis Maceroni was Peter Augustus Maceroni who, with two
brothers, served in a French regiment in the American Revolution. After
that conflict was ended he went to England and settled in Manchester,
where he was Italian agent for British manufacturers.
Francis Maceroni was educated in the Roman Catholic school, in Hampshire;
at the Dominican Academy, in Surrey, and at the college at Old Hall Green,
near Puckerbridge, Hertfordshire. During a period of ten years, from 1803
to 1813, he lived in Rome and Naples as a young gentleman of elegant
leisure. In 1813 he began the study of anatomy and medicine, but had not
gone far in those pursuits before his vagrom disposition took him in
another direction. He became aide-de-camp to Murat, King of Naples, with
the rank of Colonel of Cavalry. His service with Murat took him on
missions to England and France, and for a time he was a prisoner of the
French authorities.
After two years of this military service, he returned to England, and
retained his residence there for the rest of his life. He did not remain
at home long, however, for he was with Sir George MacGregor at Porto
Bello, in 1819; became a brigadier-general of the new republic of
Colombia, and in 1821 saw service in Spain with General Pepe.
Returning again to England, he came before the public as an advocate of a
ship canal across the Isthmus, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
and also promoted a company, called The Atlantic and Pacific Junction and
South American Mining and Trading Company, with a capital of one million
pounds sterling. The company collapsed in the commercial panic of 1825,
and this soldier of fortune in 1829 went to Constantinople to assist the
Turks against the Russians. In London again in 1831, Maceroni was engaged
for the rest of his life in the cause of highway steam locomotion, in
which he accomplished a great deal.
Maceroni was second only to Walter Hancock as an inventor and builder of
steam road carriages and as a promoter of travel by those vehicles. From
1825 to 1828 he was with Goldsworthy Gurney in London, but his real
activity did not begin until 1831, when he became associated with John
Squire. In 1833, Maceroni and Squire took out a patent for a multi-tubular
boiler, which they applied to a steam carriage that one writer of that day
described as "a fine specimen of indomitable perseverance." It often
traveled at the rate of from eighteen to twenty miles an hour. The engines
were placed horizontally underneath the carriage body, the boiler was
arranged at the back, and a fan was used to urge the combustion of the
fuel, the supply of which was regulated by the engineman, who had a seat
behind. The passengers were placed in the open carriage body, and their
seats were upon the tops of the water tanks. There were two cylinders
seven and one-half inches in diameter, the stroke being fifteen and
three-quarter inches. The diameter of the steam pipe was two and
one-quarter inches, and that of the exhaust pipe was two and three-quarter
inches.
The carriage attracted a great deal of attention, and much was written
about it in the newspapers of the time. Once the trip was taken to
Harrow-on-the-Hill, a distance of nine miles, in fifty-eight minutes,
without the full power of steam being on at any time. For several weeks in
the early part of 1834 the carriage was running daily from Oxford Street
to Edgeware. Several trips were made to Uxbridge, when the roads were in
very bad condition, but the journey from the Regent's Circus, Oxford
Street, a distance of sixteen miles, was often performed in a little over
an hour. A trip to Watford was made, and one of the passengers thus
described the experience from Bushby Heath into the village of Watford:
"We set off from the starting place amid the cheers of the villagers. The
motion was so steady that we could have read with ease, and the noise was
no worse than that produced by a common vehicle. On arriving at the summit
of Clay Hill, the local and inexperienced attendant neglected to clog the
wheel until it became impossible. We went thundering down the hill at the
rate of thirty miles an hour. Mr. Squire was steersman, and never lost his
presence of mind. It may be conceived what amazement a thing of this kind,
flashing through the village of Bushy, occasioned among the inhabitants.
The people seemed petrified on seeing a carriage without horses. In the
busy and populous town of Watford the sensation was similar--the men gazed
in speechless wonder; the women clapped their hands. We turned round at
the end of the street in magnificent style, and ascended Clay Hill at the
same rate as the stage coaches drawn by five horses."
Maceroni made two steam carriages, but in 1834 he separated from Squire,
and becoming short of funds fell into the clutches of Asda, an Italian
Jew, who persuaded him to let the two carriages go to the Continent. One
was sent to Brussels, where it ran successfully, and the other went to
Paris. The performance of the latter was thus described in the columns of
a Paris journal: "The steam carriage brought to perfection in England by
Colonel Maceroni, ran along the Boulevards as far as the Rue Faubourg du
Temple. It turned with the greatest facility, ran the whole length of the
Boulevards back again, and along the Rue Royale, to the Place Louis XV.
This carriage is very elegant, much lighter, and by no means so noisy as
the one we saw here some months ago, and it excited along its way the
surprise and applause of the astonished spectators. All the hills on the
paved Boulevard were ascended with astonishing rapidity. One of our
colleagues was in this carriage the whole of its running above described,
and he declares that there is not the least heat felt inside from the
fire, and that conversation can be kept up so as to be heard at a much
lower tone than in most ordinary carriages."
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 extremes of poverty. In 1841 he succeeded in securing the support
of The General Steam Carriage Company to construct and run carriages under
his patent. Disagreement between the directors and the manufacturing
engineer again 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 machine was subjected to a
second trial. The carriage 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 were mounted easily. No doubt existed of the engine being
speedily put in complete and effective condition for actual service.
During another experimental trip in April of the same year, the locomotive
met with an accident caused by some of the boiler tubes giving way,
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 compensating gear that he first used on his steam
carriage. This gear superseded claw clutches, friction bands,
ratchet-wheels, and other arrangements for obtaining the full power of
both the driving-wheels, and at the same time allowing for the engine to
turn the sharpest corner. In 1839, Roberts invented an arrangement for
communicating power to both driving-wheels at all times, whether turning
to the right or left. During the latter years of his life this famous
engineer lived in exceedingly 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 clergyman,
and the son was originally intended for the church. His mind was more
inclined toward mechanics than theology, 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 from Glasgow when he
was sixteen years of age. In 1832, upon the death of Sir John Leslie,
Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University, Russell was
elected to fill the vacancy temporarily. Shortly after that he began his
celebrated investigations into the nature of the sea waves, as a
preliminary study to improving the forms of ships. As a result of these
researches he developed the wave-line system for the construction of
vessels. In 1837 he received a gold medal of the Royal Society of
Engineers, 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
motion of floating bodies." At that time he was manager of the
shipbuilding words at Greenock, and under his supervision and according to
his designs several ships were built with lines based on his wave system.
Among 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 shipbuilder
on the Thames, and supervised the construction of the celebrated steamship
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 was while 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 demonstrated.
The engine had two vertical cylinders, twelve inches in diameter and with
twelve inches stroke. The engine was mounted upon laminated springs,
arranged so that each spring in its flexure described, at a particular
point, such a circle as was also described by the main axle in its motion
round the crank shaft. This arrangement was intended to correct any
irregularities 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 two wheels, coupled to the rear of the engine. Spare tenders,
filled, were kept in readiness at different stations on the road. These
tenders, mounted upon springs, had seats back and front for passengers. To
work the locomotive three persons were required, a steersman on the front
seat, an engineer 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 Steam Carriage 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 time, they were "in the style and with all the comfort and elegance
of the most costly gentleman's carriage." They ran very successfully for
some time, during 1834, between St. George's Square, Glasgow, and Paisley.
There was a service of six coaches once an hour. Each carriage
accommodated six passengers inside and twenty outside, and sometimes drew,
in addition, a dogcart laden with six passengers, 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 same period. Road trustees objected to them
on the ground 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 more damaged 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 Steam Carriage Company brought an action for
damages against the trustees of the turnpike road for having compelled
them to withdraw the carriages from the Glasgow and Paisley road by
"wantonly, wrongfully and maliciously accumulating masses of metal, stones
and rubbish on the said road, in order to create such annoyance and
obstruction as might impede, overturn, or destroy the steam coaches
belonging to the plaintiffs," but nothing seems to have come of this
action.
No longer 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
Hammersmith. But they remained unsold, and were shortly forgotten.