FIG. 95.—HEDLEY’S “PUFFING BILLY,” 1813.
In 1813 “Puffing Billy” was built by Wm. Hedley. There were (see [Fig. 95]) four smooth drive wheels running on smooth rails, which wheels were coupled together by intermediate gear wheels on the axle, and all propelled by a gear wheel in the middle, driven by a connecting rod from the walking beam overhead. Hedley’s locomotive was used on the Wylam railway, and was said to have been at work more or less until 1862.
Most prominent among those who took an active interest in the development of the locomotive were George Stephenson and his son, Robert. Stephenson’s first locomotive was tried on the Killingworth Railway on July 27, 1814. In 1815 Dodds and Stephenson patented an arrangement for attaching the connecting rods to the driving wheels, which took the place of cog wheels heretofore employed, and in the following year Stephenson, in connection with Mr. Losh, patented the application of steam cushion-springs for supporting the weight of the locomotive in an elastic manner.
In 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in England, was opened for traffic, with George Stephenson’s engine, “Locomotion,” and was put permanently into service for the transportation of freight and passengers.
FIG. 96.—HACKWORTH’S LOCOMOTIVE, “ROYAL GEORGE,” 1827.
In 1827 Hackworth produced the “Royal George” (see [Fig. 96]), whose cylinders were arranged vertically at the rear end of the boiler, and whose pistons emerged from the cylinders at the lower ends of the latter, and imparted their power through connecting rods to cranks on the opposite ends of the axle of the rear driving wheels in a more direct manner than heretofore, and doing away with the overhead mechanism heretofore employed in most engines. Hackworth also improved the steam blast, put on the bell, and greatly simplified and modernized the appearance of the locomotive.