John Blenkinsop

Blenkinsops Salamanca

John Blenkinsop (* 1783 in Felling, County Durham , † January 22, 1831 in Leeds ) was an English mine manager and mining engineer and inventor of the rack railway .

The locomotives on the Middleton Railway

After completing his usual training as a mining engineer, John Blenkinsop was appointed manager (viewer or steward) of the coal mines by Charles John Brandling in Middleton near Leeds in 1808 and fulfilled this task until his death in 1831. The coal mines also included the horse-drawn railway, built in 1758 (tram way) from Middleton to the River Aire in Leeds, which Blenkinsop was also responsible for. This railway, the Middleton tram way , which is partly still operated as a museum railway today, had a track width of four feet and one inch at the time.

The Collier - the painting by Robert Havell (1814) shows the Salamanca locomotive on the Middleton Railway near Leeds .

The extremely large shortage of horses prompted Blenkinsop to make another attempt in 1811 to use steam locomotives to transport the coal from the mine to the landing points of the ships on the Aire River. He entrusted the construction of the machines he wanted to Matthew Murray from Fenton, Murray & Wood in Holbeck (now part of Leeds), which was then the second largest steam engine factory in the world. These locomotives were built by Murray, who Blenkinsop had first contacted as early as 1808, based on the blueprints and patents of Richard Trevithick (who received a license fee of £ 30 for each of the locomotives). In previous attempts with traveling engines (i.e. with locomotives), the usual cast-iron rails of the horse-powered coal railways broke within a very short time under the weight of the machines, so Blenkinsop asked Murray to build a machine that was as light as possible. Since this inevitably reduced the friction weight of the locomotive, the drive was to be ensured by a special gear drive that Blenkinsop had designed especially for this purpose and for which he received a patent on April 10, 1811.

In the spring of 1812 the company Fenton, Murray & Wood delivered the first two locomotives, "Prince Regent" and " Salamanca ". On June 24th, 1812, the two machines began operating on the mine’s horse-drawn tram, which was meanwhile equipped with a cogwheel. The two machines were very successful and remained in operation until the Brandling company, to which the coal mines belonged, went bankrupt in 1834. In the first few years the machines usually pulled 27 coal wagons (chaldrons) with a pulling weight of around 100 to 110 tons at a speed of around 6 - 7 km / h. A year later the two locomotives "Lord Wellington" and "Marquis Wellington" followed. Although the four machines did not even weigh 5 tons, they pulled trains of up to 38 coal wagons with a train weight of 140 tons at a speed of around 6 km / h. The four locomotives together replace a total of 52 horses and more than 200 men and were therefore considered a "great success".

The Blenkinsop locomotives were the first commercially successful steam locomotives. Until the end of the line in Middleton (1834), numerous visitors from abroad came to Leeds and Middleton to see the locomotives in operation (including the future Russian Emperor Nicholas in 1816). Word of the machines' great success and smooth operation quickly got around and this had a major impact not only on the introduction of locomotives at the other coal mines in Northern England, but also on the founders of both the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, who were mostly business people rather than engineers.

These locomotives also served as a model for the steam cars of the Königliche Eisengießerei Berlin , the first steam locomotives made in Germany.

The locomotives on other railways

After its completion, the “Lord Wellington” locomotive was first loaned out to John Watson, a friend of Blenkinsop, in the autumn of 1813 to be tried out on the Kenton & Coxlodge tramway near Newcastle. In 1814 Fenton, Murray & Wood delivered two somewhat larger machines to this railway in 1814/15. At least two other locomotives based on the Blenkinsop system were built between 1812 and 1816 by Robert Daglish in the "Haigh Foundry" for the Orrell Colliery near Wigan (in Lancashire). Because of their "origin" from Leeds, the locomotives were called "Yorkshire Horses". These machines also proved their worth and were in use until around 1835.

Notes on the family of John Blenkinsop

John Blenkinsop's son, John Stanley Blenkinsop , went to Braunschweig , built up the railway workshop from 1838 and also worked as a train driver. A collaboration between Blenkinsop and Georg Egestorff's iron foundry developed .

Web links

Commons : John Blenkinsop - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Evidence and Notes

↑ Blenkinsop is referred to as a "steward" on his tombstone in Leeds. This suggests that he was not only the viewer of the Middleton coal mines, but that he was the manager of all of the Brandling family's properties in the Leeds area.
^ Biographical data from: T. Seccombe: John Blenkinsop. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 1901 (1901)
^ D. Joy: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 8: West and South Yorkshire. 1975, p. 30. The "Middleton Tram Way" had already been built in 1758; he was about 7 km long and led from the coal mines in Middleton to jetties on the River Aire in Leeds
↑ As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the prices for horses and horse fodder in Great Britain had risen many times over what was usual before the wars
↑ Matthew Murray is the actual designer of the Blenkinsop locomotives. Murray was next to Richard Trevithick one of the most important pioneers of the modern "high pressure steam engines", i. H. the steam engines with a steam pressure of more than one atmosphere; Murray invented a. a. the steam valve control (shell valve) and he was the first to build steam engines with drive cranks offset by 90 °. Murray knew Trevithick and he had also seen his locomotive in operation at Gateshead in 1805 (whether Blenkinsop saw the Gateshead locomotive, which in a short time crushed the rails on which it was traveling, also with his own eyes is not unlikely, but in research controversial).
^ To Boulton & Watt in Birmingham, which manufactured the steam engines of James Watt
↑ with a flame tube boiler, two standing cylinders with blowpipes; see. CF Dendy Marshall: History of the Railway Locomotive down to the End of the Year 1830. 1953; JGH Warren: A Century of Locomotive Building by Robert Stephenson & Co. 1823–1923. 1923 (reprint 1970), p. 9ff; A. Burton: The Rainhill Story. 1970, p. 7ff; WW Tomlinson: History of the North Eastern Railway. 1914 (reprint 1987), p. 21ff.
^ A. Burton, Richard Trevithick, 2000, p. 99.
↑ The later legend, which has partly persisted to this day, that Blenkinsop and Murray, who were both talented engineers, did not understand the technical and physical principles of the locomotive and did not know the laws of friction at all, probably goes back to the description by Blenkinsop in the first Biography of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles, whose author endeavored throughout his book to stylize his "hero", George Stephenson, as the sole inventor of the steam locomotive. Incidentally, Galileo had already dealt with the forces of friction and quite a few physicists in the following centuries made numerous attempts to elucidate these forces. Charles Augustin de Coulomb published the law of friction (F = µ x N), which is still valid today, in 1785 and already differentiated between static and kinetic friction in his presentation. Between 1786 and 1795, several studies of friction by Samuel Vince appeared in Great Britain . In addition, several engineers carried out experiments on "rolling friction" in this country between 1798 and 1806, of which Richard Trevithick and John Rennie were only the best known (a detailed account of the history of the study of the laws of friction can be found in: Peter J. Blau : Friction Science and Technology. 2002). By 1810, the laws on frictional forces were largely commonplace among engineers in Great Britain. In the further experiments of the railway pioneers it was only a question of determining the exact value of µ in the friction of cast iron wheels on differently shaped cast iron rails (µ denotes the specific coefficient of friction)
↑ with pure adhesion operation (i.e. with locomotives without gear drive) the locomotive would have had to be much heavier with the (known) friction values of the cast-iron rails of the time and the existing gradients of the railway line in order to be able to pull a train that was twenty-eight times heavier than its own weight. None of the rails that existed at the time would have borne such a burden.
^ T. Seccombe: John Blenkinsop. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 1901 (1901)
^ WW Tomlinson: History of the North Eastern Railway. 1914 (reprint 1987), p. 22ff.
↑ since this train passed near Georg Stephenson's apartment, he saw the locomotive in action and was inspired by it (RTC Rolt, George and Robert Stephenson, 1960, p. 45).
^ WW Tomlinson: History of the North Eastern Railway. 1914 (reprinted 1987), p. 23.
↑ Whether or not the third locomotive that was used on the mine railway was a locomotive based on the Blenkinsop system or not is a matter of dispute
^ GO Holt: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 10: The North West. 1978, p. 30.
^ Wilhelm M. Wunderlich: The first German state railway. 1987, p. 25.

personal data
SURNAME	Blenkinsop, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English mine manager and mining engineer and inventor of the rack railway
DATE OF BIRTH	1783
PLACE OF BIRTH	Felling, County Durham
DATE OF DEATH	January 22, 1831
Place of death	Leeds

[1] Blenkinsop is referred to as a "steward" on his tombstone in Leeds. This suggests that he was not only the viewer of the Middleton coal mines, but that he was the manager of all of the Brandling family's properties in the Leeds area.

[2] Biographical data from: T. Seccombe: John Blenkinsop. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 1901 (1901)

[3] D. Joy: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 8: West and South Yorkshire. 1975, p. 30. The "Middleton Tram Way" had already been built in 1758; he was about 7 km long and led from the coal mines in Middleton to jetties on the River Aire in Leeds

[4] As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the prices for horses and horse fodder in Great Britain had risen many times over what was usual before the wars

[5] Matthew Murray is the actual designer of the Blenkinsop locomotives. Murray was next to Richard Trevithick one of the most important pioneers of the modern "high pressure steam engines", i. H. the steam engines with a steam pressure of more than one atmosphere; Murray invented a. a. the steam valve control (shell valve) and he was the first to build steam engines with drive cranks offset by 90 °. Murray knew Trevithick and he had also seen his locomotive in operation at Gateshead in 1805 (whether Blenkinsop saw the Gateshead locomotive, which in a short time crushed the rails on which it was traveling, also with his own eyes is not unlikely, but in research controversial).

[6] To Boulton & Watt in Birmingham, which manufactured the steam engines of James Watt

[7] with a flame tube boiler, two standing cylinders with blowpipes; see. CF Dendy Marshall: History of the Railway Locomotive down to the End of the Year 1830. 1953; JGH Warren: A Century of Locomotive Building by Robert Stephenson & Co. 1823–1923. 1923 (reprint 1970), p. 9ff; A. Burton: The Rainhill Story. 1970, p. 7ff; WW Tomlinson: History of the North Eastern Railway. 1914 (reprint 1987), p. 21ff.

[8] A. Burton, Richard Trevithick, 2000, p. 99.

[9] The later legend, which has partly persisted to this day, that Blenkinsop and Murray, who were both talented engineers, did not understand the technical and physical principles of the locomotive and did not know the laws of friction at all, probably goes back to the description by Blenkinsop in the first Biography of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles, whose author endeavored throughout his book to stylize his "hero", George Stephenson, as the sole inventor of the steam locomotive. Incidentally, Galileo had already dealt with the forces of friction and quite a few physicists in the following centuries made numerous attempts to elucidate these forces. Charles Augustin de Coulomb published the law of friction (F = µ x N), which is still valid today, in 1785 and already differentiated between static and kinetic friction in his presentation. Between 1786 and 1795, several studies of friction by Samuel Vince appeared in Great Britain . In addition, several engineers carried out experiments on "rolling friction" in this country between 1798 and 1806, of which Richard Trevithick and John Rennie were only the best known (a detailed account of the history of the study of the laws of friction can be found in: Peter J. Blau : Friction Science and Technology. 2002). By 1810, the laws on frictional forces were largely commonplace among engineers in Great Britain. In the further experiments of the railway pioneers it was only a question of determining the exact value of µ in the friction of cast iron wheels on differently shaped cast iron rails (µ denotes the specific coefficient of friction)

[10] with pure adhesion operation (i.e. with locomotives without gear drive) the locomotive would have had to be much heavier with the (known) friction values of the cast-iron rails of the time and the existing gradients of the railway line in order to be able to pull a train that was twenty-eight times heavier than its own weight. None of the rails that existed at the time would have borne such a burden.

[11] T. Seccombe: John Blenkinsop. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 1901 (1901)

[12] WW Tomlinson: History of the North Eastern Railway. 1914 (reprint 1987), p. 22ff.

[13] since this train passed near Georg Stephenson's apartment, he saw the locomotive in action and was inspired by it (RTC Rolt, George and Robert Stephenson, 1960, p. 45).

[14] WW Tomlinson: History of the North Eastern Railway. 1914 (reprinted 1987), p. 23.

[15] Whether or not the third locomotive that was used on the mine railway was a locomotive based on the Blenkinsop system or not is a matter of dispute

[16] GO Holt: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 10: The North West. 1978, p. 30.

[17] Wilhelm M. Wunderlich: The first German state railway. 1987, p. 25.