James Edward Earnshaw

James Edward Earnshaw (born August 28, 1808 in Dundee , Scotland , † November 24, 1870 in Nuremberg ) was a mechanical engineer. He constructed special steam engines , so-called block and balancing machines

Bock steam engine

(Balancing machines are steam engines with vertically standing steam cylinders, in which the piston movement is transmitted to the crank drive by means of a balancer. This type of machine owes its existence to the fact that the first steam engines were used to pump water, the balancer being a convenient transmission link between the steam piston rod and the sucker rod.)

Life and family

Residential and office building of the Earnshaw company on Gießereistraße 2. (StadtAN C 20 / V No. 15701, Nuremberg City Archives)

Earnshaw was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1808 and had lived in Nuremberg since 1835, at the age of 27, and in Wöhrd No. 236 since 1845 . In 1845 he submitted to the magistrate for his residency and mentioned in the settlement application that his assets had grown from the 2000 fl (guilders) that he had brought into the company Klett & Co. to 4,000 fl. His annual fee was 1200  florins. After the poor welfare council and the community representatives had given their approval, the magistrate decided to grant him admission as an "inmate".

Earnshaw had a son from his first marriage, William Edward, who was born around 1834. In his second marriage he was married to Johanna Schwarz for eight years without children. The royal appellate court for Upper Franconia in Bamberg divorced her on January 18, 1845. Earnshaw was evangelical and led by St. Lawrence, although as a Scot he may have been reformed. At the end of 1845 he married the third wife of the Oberpostamtsoffizialwidow Christine Vörhölzer, geb. Albanus.

On November 24, 1870, Earnshaw died in Giessereistraße (where he had probably lived since 1842) and was buried in the Wöhrder cemetery. His grave C444 is still preserved.

Inventions

He invented a special control for steam engines in favor of a more efficient steam distribution. This earnshaw control held a special place in the history of steam engines because it resulted in a significantly lower consumption of steam and fire.

James Edward Earnshaw & Comp.

founding

In the revolutionary year of 1848 the company James Edward Earnshaw & Comp. founded. Since February 19, 1834, only 15 years had passed since the establishment of the royal privileged Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft with headquarters in Nuremberg and Fürth and 7 years since the founding of the Klett & Comp company. The wholesale merchant Johann Friedrich Klett , who inspired by the example of England, had the idea of ​​manufacturing machines, which at that time hardly existed in Bavaria, became important.

Since there was also a lack of technicians and engineers, they had to rely on England, which was a few decades ahead in this field. Klett's intentions coincided with the arrival of English engineers who had previously worked in Zurich. He began in 1841/42 with three or four Englishmen on the site north of the Pegnitz between the Wöhrder Türlein and the suburb of Wöhrd with the operation of a machine factory.

With the English there was also the Scot James Edward Earnshaw . With him and with two others, Klett signed a partnership agreement and so Earnshaw became Associé and co-founder of the company, in which he was also involved with his capital - according to his statements, it was 2000  florins . Earnshaw may have come to Nuremberg as early as 1835, the year the Ludwigsbahn was inaugurated, perhaps attracted by his Scottish compatriot William Wilson , the Adler's first train driver .

When after the death of Joh. Friedr. Kletts The English parted from the company in 1847, Earnshaw was the last to leave and the only one who remained in Nuremberg. The engineer Leo Haas left the Klett company together with Earnshaw in order to set up his own company of the same class. J. Edward Earnshaw & Co.'s machine factory and iron foundry was founded in 1847. The concession was granted by the magistrate one year later, on December 15, 1848. The future location of the factory was in the immediate vicinity of the Klett factory, directly in front of the western gate of Wöhrd.

production

Production initially focused on general mechanical engineering, especially steam engines and mill equipment, then transmissions, turbines and water wheels. The own factory was powered by a standing steam engine.

Changes

Ten years after it was founded, the property changed. On May 1, 1857, James Edward Earnshaw left the company and left half the share of machines and tools to Leo Haas, who was previously the technical manager of the factory, and his son William Edward Earnshaw. Leo Haas was liable with his fortune, which at that time amounted to 25,000 fl. James Edward Earnshaw left the company with a capital of 16,697 florins and 22 cruisers for the time being and only ran the iron foundry itself.

On December 23, 1858, Earnshaw Sr. resigned. on his right of concession to the machine factory. In the following years further changes of ownership took place. According to the property tax register of 1871, Leo Haas and his partner Earnshaw bought the entire property - except for the iron foundry - from James Edward Earnshaw on November 15, 1866 for 27,000 fl. On June 2, 1868, Leo Haas bought James Edward Earnshaw's share for 16,500 fl. He left the company and Leo Haas was now the sole owner.

Extract from the Nuremberg address book from 1863

Road to Wöhrd

No. 191: Earnshaw James Edward, engineering works. Bes .: Leo Haas
No. 184: v. Cramer-Klett Theod., Kaufmann a. Factory owner
No. 185a: Kock Ludwig, Dr.med.prakt. Doctor
No. 187 u. 194: v. Tucher'sche Freih.
Complete family No. 188a: von Oelhafen Carl, royal captain
No. 190: Neubauer Paulus, garden owner

Web links

• James Edward Earnshaw & Comp: Steam Engine
• Deutsches Museum Block Steam Engine J. Edward Earnshaw and Co., Nuremberg, 1862
• James Edward Earnshaw: Variable Expansion Device for Steam Engines. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 141, 1856, pp. 245-247.
• The steam engines of the II. Bavarian State Exhibition in Nuremberg 1896. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 303, 1897, pp. 97-101.
• Johann Wissen digital: Friedrich Klett
• City history introduction: The new school building in Sulzbacher Strasse 1909-1911

swell

• Bertha Manchot, b. Haas: (memories, self-published)
• Karl Eduard Haas: The former company J. Edward Earnshaw & Comp. Machine factory and iron foundry 1848–1959 (self-published)
• Karl Eduard Haas: The Nuremberg families Earnshaw, Haas, Giulini, Koch (self-published)