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Steam Horse
The ''Steam Horse'' was an early railway steam locomotive constructed by the Butterley Company in Derbyshire in 1813 by William Brunton (1777–1851). Also known as the ''Mechanical Traveller'', it had a pair of mechanical legs, with feet that gripped the ground behind the engine to push it forwards along the rails at about three miles an hour. Design The collieries were well served between towns by the canal system. From the pit head to the canals, horse-drawn wagonways had been constructed and steam engines were seen as no more than a noisy and dangerous novelty. However the Napoleonic Wars from 1799 to 1815 had brought a great increase in the price of fodder. Moreover, some such "railways" were being constructed on the steeper gradients within canals, as for instance on the Charnwood Forest Canal. Few believed that steel wheels on smooth steel rails would give enough adhesion until Robert Stephenson and William Hedley proved otherwise in 1813 and even the former consider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Brunton
William Brunton Senior (26 May 1777 – 5 October 1851) was a Scottish engineer and inventor. Early life He was the eldest son of Robert Brunton, a watchmaker (14 Aug 1748–1834) of Dalkeith, where he was born. He studied mechanics in his father's watch and clock making shop, and engineering under his grandfather William Brunton (16 July 1706 – 22 March 1787), who was a colliery viewer in the neighborhood. (His grandfather's death certificate states that William Brunton was actually a portioner in Dalkeith, not a colliery viewer.) Career In 1790 Brunton began work in the fitting shops of the cotton mills at New Lanark. In 1796, he moved south to Birmingham, employed Boulton and Watt at the Soho Foundry. He became foreman and superintendent of the engine manufactory there. At age 21, he carried out onsite maintenance for clients. Leaving Soho. Brunton in 1808 joined the Butterley Works of Benjamin Outram and William Jessop. He met John Rennie, Thomas Telford and other emi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cable Railway
A cable railway is a railway that uses a Wire rope, cable, rope or chain to haul trains. It is a specific type of cable transportation. The most common use for a cable railway is to move vehicles on a Grade (slope), steeply graded line that is too steep for conventional locomotives to operate on – this form of cable railway is often called an incline or inclined plane, or, in New Zealand, a jigline, or jig line. One common form of incline is the funicular – an isolated passenger railway where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.Walter Hefti: ''Schienenseilbahnen in aller Welt. Schiefe Seilebenen, Standseilbahnen, Kabelbahnen.'' Birkhäuser, Basel 1975, (in German) In other forms, the cars attach and detach to the cable at the ends of the cable railway. Some cable railways are not steeply graded - these are often used in quarries to move large numbers of wagons between the quarry to the processing plant. History The oldest extant cable railway is probably the Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explosions In England
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume of a given amount of matter associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Explosions may also be generated by a slower expansion that would normally not be forceful, but is not allowed to expand, so that when whatever is containing the expansion is broken by the pressure that builds as the matter inside tries to expand, the matter expands forcefully. An example of this is a volcanic eruption created by the expansion of magma in a magma chamber as it rises to the surface. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel through shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower combustion process known as deflagration. Causes For an explosion to occur, there must be a rapid, forceful expansion of matter. There are numerous ways this can happen, both naturally and artificially, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Accidents And Incidents In County Durham
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road transport. It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed.Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains. Power is usually provided by diesel or electric locomotives. While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with the invention of the steam locomotive in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
