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Birmingham Steam Buses 1824-1910.

Benjamin Church the 17th Century "Indian Hunter".

The great and good Dr William Church claimed a 17th century "Indian hunter" named Church as his forebear. In the hope of finding a firm connection, and perhaps further clues to Dr Church's genealogy, I have teased this story out a little.

Benjamin Church (c 1639 - 17 January 1718) was the son of one Richard Church (died 27 December 1668), who had emigrated from Old England to New England about 1630. Colonel Benjamin Church's claim to fame was his leadership of irregular armed bands against Native Americans in what was known as King Philip's War (1675-1676). During one of Church's raids, Metacom (c 1639 - 12 August 1676), sachem (war leader) of the Wampanoag people, was killed. Metacom was also known as "King Philip", so giving his name to the war.

Benjamin Church kept diaries of these events, which were published as Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War (Boston: by B Green, 1716). Later editions appeared in 1772, 1825 and 1827. A facsimile of the first edition was later published, entitled The History of King Philip's War (Boston: J K Wiggin, 1865) with scholarly introduction and notes by Henry Martyn Dexter. The introduction contains detailed genealogical notes on Benjamin Church and his family, but I could see no obvious connection to our Dr Church. Perhaps someone with more patience and a keener "genealogical eye" can discover something. Dexter also published other Benjamin Church diaries as The History of the Eastern Expeditions of 1689, 1690, 1692, 1696, and 1704 Against the Indians and the French (Boston: J K Wiggin and W P Lunt, 1867), again with introduction and notes.

Attached below is an alleged picture of sachem Metacom (from the e-text of the 1825 edition), which apparently first appeared in 1772, so is almost certainly an artist's impression rather than a true portrait.

"Indian hunter" Benjamin Church had an illustrious namesake great-grandson (24 August 1734 - c 1778), but again I could find no obvious relationship with our Dr Church.
 
The Thylacine Receives His Prosser.

Keithfletcher said:
... By the way, according to Prosser: Birmingham Inventors and Inventions. (reprint) Wakefield 1970 ...
Click to expand...

You have obviously beaten me to it, Prof Fletcher, but today I received my copy of Prosser (also the 1970 reprint, I hasten to add, not the first edition of 1881, which was limited to 50 copies only).

This is a valuable resource for research into the history of Birmingham technology and industry (not just steam vehicles). I'm looking forward to delving into it and sharing choice quotes with the BSB classroom. :cool:

Seabird [wherever you are — come back all is forgiven! ;)], many thanks for putting me on to this in the first place. :)

[Keith, just for the record, I obtained it from Baggins Book Bazaar Ltd (Rochester, Kent) via Abebooks for £16.50 plus £6.00 shipping (condition quoted as good, but I would say very good in vg dustwrapper). So I'm still supporting the booksellers! ;)]
 
A Picture of Dr Church?

Prosser (1881) has this to say:
A portrait of Dr Church, painted by J Moore, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837, and is noticed in the Mechanics Magazine, vol xxvii, page 119. Enquiries have been recently made as to its whereabouts, but unfortunately without success.​
The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette (Vol xxvii no 720; 27 May 1837; page 119) gives a brief and cutting review:
The painting (No 356) in the Middle-room, is a portrait, by J Moore, of "Dr Church, the eminent Mechanician", who would have been more eminent by this time if his steam-carriage had been found to answer.​
To which I respond in the immortal words of Homer: "D'oh!". :(
 
In a steam-driven Galaxy far, far away........As a bit of fun (far, far, off topic) thought I would share my thoughts on possible alter egos for those on the thread:

Thylacine - Palpatine, answers to "Darth Sideous" or "The supreme Emperor" or "Dark Lord of the Steam", owner/operator of the Thread

Keith - Darth Maul, Emperor's second Apprentice, or is it the first (I get mixed up) about which little is known yet, Steam Tattoos

Lloyd - Darth Vader, Emperor's first apprentice (or is it the last, etc) perhaps more powerful than the Emperor himself

Luke Skywalker - Moi, natch, strangely originates from around the same part of the Galaxy as Vader

Motorman - Jar Jar Binks, enough said
....
 
....
Mikejee - R2-D2, appears everywhere and has vast data banks

Rupert - Chewbacca, hairy, Alaskan Malamute-based bear type creature that you wouldn't want to wake from hibernation

Wendy - Princess Leia Organa - what else? (don't worry, I spared you the gold bikini shot!)

Seabird - Padmé Amidala, Queen of Naboo

Hope I haven't missed any contributors....
 
Molesworth, you flatter me! :blush:

But there is one very elusive "Steam Wars" character you have overlooked: the venerable Peter W, who dropped in at post #256, dropped the Scottish IGSB (Inter-Generational Steam Bus) "New Favorite" before our astonished eyes, and promptly de-materialized. Obi-Wan Kenobi perhaps? (I'm hoping he's hard at work on a detailed, analytical, annotated, steam-powered BSB INDEX. I just trawled through the whole thing checking for participants, and it took ages!).
 
Re: A Picture of Dr Church?

Thylacine said:
[...A portrait of Dr Church, painted by J Moore, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837...
Click to expand...

There is a rather nice contemporary Aquatint by someone called J.Moore printseller to H.R. H. the Duke of Orleans, "at his Wholesale Looking Glass and Picture Frame Manufactory" on St. Martins Lane. It is dated 01/03/1842, called "Messrs. Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co.'s Brewery." London. It shows a busy scene on Brick Lane, with draymen, vendors, brewers, and with a locomotive crossing a bridge in the distance. https://www.philaprintshop.com/britishviews.html for $1200....

Amazingly, the Brewery and surrounding buildings appear to have survived the 170 years https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&...=BY_GAejLmq9EB18RGb1p4w&cbp=12,18.69,,0,-18.7
 
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Lovely picture, Molesworth, of the serious business of quenching the nation's thirst in the early 19th century. Full of industrial, transport and social interest. The artist had clearly learned his perspective lessons well!

Right name, right era: we can but wonder ... Somewhere the face of The Doctor (the "eminent Mechanician") looks down from a wall at people who are ignorant of his fame, even if they know his name. I thought the Mechanics Magazine was typically mean-spirited. :angry2:
 
Thanks, Prof Fletcher, for keeping us on the straight and narrow. But have you heard of the painter "J Moore" whose Dr Church portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837?
 
Patents Granted to Dr William Church 1811-1858.

[Dr William Church is said to have registered over 70 patents during his long career as an inventor. Here is a checklist of 33 that we have been able to discover information about. As usual, corrections, additions and comments are welcome: I will keep this post up to date as new information is revealed. The format is
date: occupation (address) [co-patentees if any] "description".]

1811: — (US) "screw propeller".
1818: — (London) "certain improvements [in steam engines]".
21 September 1822: engineer (Britannia Works, Birmingham) "printing machinery".
1824: — (Birmingham) "printing machinery".
1824: — (Birmingham) "casting metals".
1824: — (Birmingham) "augers and boring bits".
1825: — (Birmingham) "casting metals under pressure".
1826: — (Birmingham) "printing machinery".
1827: — (Birmingham) "spinning machinery".
1829: — (Bordesley Green) "covered buttons".
1829: — (Heywood House) "marine engines, paddle wheels, boilers, furnaces etc".
1829: — (Heywood House) "knife sharpener".
21 September 1830: — (Heywood House, Bordesley Green) "using corrugated iron in building ships, carriages, gasometers etc".
1830: — (Heywood House) "furnaces for boilers, evaporating pans etc".
27 July 1831: gentlemen (Heywood House, Bordesley Green) "nail-making machinery".
9 February 1832: — (Bordesley Green) "steam carriages".
1832: — (Bordesley Green) "nail-making machine".
1833: — (Heywood House, Bordesley Green) "steam engines and boilers".
16 March 1835: — (Heywood House, Bordesley Green) "marine engines, locomotives, steam carriages, railways etc".
1840: civil engineer (Birmingham) "hooks and eyes".
1841: civil engineer (Birmingham) [Jonathan Harlow] "tubes and bedsteads".
1846: civil engineer (Birmingham) "stamping and cutting metals, tubes, hollow rails etc".
1848: civil engineer (Birmingham) [Thomas Lewis woollen draper] "cutting, perforating and pressing card".
1850: engineer (Birmingham) "cutting pasteboard, numbering and printing railway tickets".
1852: civil engineer (Birmingham) [Samuel Aspinwall Goddard, Edward Middleton] "fire arms, ordnance and rifling machine for fire arms".
10 June 1853: — (Birmingham) "new or improved sight for cannons and other ordnance".
10 February 1854: — (Birmingham) [Samuel Aspinwall Goddard] "improvement in ordnance".
9 June 1854: — (Birmingham) "new or improved projectile".
26 July 1854: — (Birmingham) [Samuel Aspinwall Goddard] "improvement(s) in ordnance".
14 September 1855: — (Birmingham) "improvements in mounting and adjusting ordnance and other fire-arms".
16 October 1855: — (Birmingham) "improvement(s) in the manufacture of ordnance ".
13 August 1856: — (Birmingham) [Henry Whiting Hamlyn corn factor] " improved method(s) of constructing or building hay and other ricks".
9 January 1858: — (Birmingham) "improvements in measuring rules, compasses and other mathematical instruments, and in machinery used in manufacturing same".

[Sources:
Richard Bissell Prosser. Birmingham Inventors and Inventions. Wakefield: S R Publishers Ltd, 1970. ISBN 0854095780.
Alec George Jenson. Birmingham Transport. Walsall: Birmingham Transport Historical Group, 1978. ISBN 0905103009.
London Gazette website.
Wikipedia's William Church article.
Numerous posts on the BSB thread.]
 
Dr Church's Printing Machinery 1822.

Dr Church's best known patent is number 4664 for printing typecaster, typesetter and press (granted 21 March and sealed 21 September 1822). Details of this patent, including diagrams, were published in two installments in:

W Newton. The London Journal of Arts and Sciences etc. Volume 6. London: Sherwood, Jones & Co, 1823.

These installments are found in Number 35 (plate 12 and pp 225-232) and Number 36 (plate 13 and pp 281-285). The links are to the archive.org e-text of this journal.

It is informative as to Dr Church's movements at this time, that the articles are headed: "To William Church, late of Nelson Square, Southwark [London], but now of the Britannia Works, Birmingham, Engineer, for an Improved Apparatus for Printing". This confirms the statement concerning the Britannia Works in the Daily Post obituary, and shows that in 1822 he had recently moved to Birmingham from London. Presumably also he had not long before come to London from the US. (His visit to England in 1818 appears to have been a brief one, probably in connection with his 1818 steam engine patent.)
 
Re: Patents Granted to Dr William Church 1811-1858.

1830: — (Heywood House, Bordesley Green) "using corrugated iron in building ships, carriages, gasometers etc".
Click to expand...
I think this must be the patent for the process that Church used for making his coachwork which was reportedly "lightweight" and for which I originally used the analogy "Weymann body". I am adding a photograph (book is to tightly bound to scan) of the abridged patent spec. It would seem that it was some sort 2-ply corrugated metal sheet (shades of the Deux Chevaux van).
Trust the photo will not be too hard on the eyes.
I find no record of a possible "J. Moore".
 
Thanks for that, Prof Fletcher! It is quite legible (even to The Thylacine's poor eyes!). And very interesting: I wonder when corrugated iron was invented? (It was much used in Australia as a cheap and strong building material.)
 
[Prosser (1881) has a whole chapter on the steam carriage, which, as it relates entirely to Birmingham and the Midlands, is worth quoting in full on the BSB thread. Here is the first instalment, which relates to William James and his son William Henry James, whom we have encountered previously (posts #34, #411 and MRED #883). This extract is from Chapter 21. "Locomotive Steam Carriages" (pp 107-108 somewhat edited).]

Most of the preceding articles have been devoted to branches of trade or manufacture which have either originated in the town or have taken root there as in their natural soil. But steam locomotion did not take its rise here, nor have the labours of our townsmen exercised any abiding influence upon the subject at large. We cannot put forward a claim to compete with the more northern towns for the honour of having rocked the cradle of the locomotive; but something was done in Birmingham, nevertheless. Much ingenuity was displayed and much money was spent, and we were early in the field.

It ought not to be forgotten, as it too frequently is, that a Warwickshire man was one of the pioneers of the present railway system. Out of every thousand persons who can give an intelligent account of George Stephenson's labours how very few know anything whatever of William James! This is not the place to discuss the rival claims of these two men, and we need do no more than briefly state that James was born at Henley-in-Arden on 13 June 1771, and that he was an earnest advocate for railways, long before Stephenson appeared in the field, many of the surveys for the earlier railways having been made by him. He was brought up as a solicitor, to which profession he added that of a land agent, surveyor, and engineer. James's claims are very fairly stated in a little book by "E M S P", entitled The Two James's and the Two Stephenson's, published in London in 1861. It should be looked after by local collectors, as it contains much information relating to this neighbourhood.

James's eldest son William Henry James was born at Henley in 1797, and he appears to have inherited much of the talent of his father. His education was confided in the first instance to the Rev Dr Smith, head master of King Edward's School, and the little work above mentioned contains many details of his early inventions. In 1824 we find him established as an engineer at Coburg Place, Winson Green, where he resided for fourteen years. In 1838 he removed to London, but his career was unfortunately not prosperous, and for many years he was incapacitated by ill-health. In 1867 an appeal was inserted in the Engineer newspaper on his behalf, stating that he was in a state of destitution.

He took out twelve patents relating to various subjects, including steam carriages, railways, diving apparatus, telegraphs, weighing machines, and heating and cooling fluids. His first patent, granted in 1824, was for a steam carriage, the driving wheels of which were actuated by an independent engine. This gave great facilities for turning corners, and the steering apparatus was connected in a very ingenious manner with the steam valves, so that, in nautical parlance, the vehicle must have "answered the helm" with great rapidity. In 1832 he took out another patent for a steam carriage of a much more complicated construction, but we are not aware that any trials were ever made in Birmingham. The boiler used was very effective; but as he is said to have invented the multi-tubular locomotive boiler, it is well to say that none of his specifications bear out the assertion that he anticipated Stephenson in his application of tubes to the "Rocket" in 1829.
 
The Prefect returns! Have just got back from an accent renewal weekend, staying with my sister in Radstock in Zummerzet. On return I find I have been given a bit part in another of Molesworth's steam dreams. I wouldn't mind but the character I play is not only less serious but so much better looking than me after the make up is applied. I would have turned the part down until I read the script and found it involved good looking human gurls as well. However enough of these Hollywood fantasmagoricals - please stop giving Molesworth cheese and pickled onions for supper Matron.

Meanwhile a visit to Radstock Museum was well worthwhile where I chanced to find a back issue of a quarterly local history magazine they publish, bearing this gem of a postcard reproduced on the cover. Despite the double chimney arrangement (as adopted much later on steam railway locomotives) there appears to be a serious lack of power as evidenced by the the two old biddys pulling and three blokes - the middle one of which may be the conductor - pushing this "motor 'bus". I have discovered there actually was a 'Mendip' steam lorry produced at a village called Chewton Mendip. I therefore like to think this bus is hauled by an early Mendip steam drag. In travelling from Bath to Radstock it would compete with the Somerset & Dorset Railway over which the Pines Express would become a link between Birmingham, Bath and Radstock en route to Bournemouth.
 
Crackin' postcard Motorman - was that a holiday or a research trip? We've had a bit of a white-knuckle ride here on the Thread (so plenty of homework to catch up on) but have certainly missed your input. Matron has started a special "In Recovery" class so Molesworth is unwell until the end of Term
 
Welcome back from hols, Motorman! The BSB classroom needs you as a foil for Aidan "Skywalker" Molesworth. ;)

I love the Bath - Radstock "Ark"! That must be Seabird and Wendy assisting up the hill. More moonlighters!
 
Re: Motorman's Bath - Radstock "Ark". C W Harris and Co traded as Mendip Engineering Co Ltd (Chewton Mendip, Somerset), which had originally been established in the early 1800s as Cutler's Green Ironworks. C W Harris designed and built steam lorries in 1907-1908, which were sold as "Mendips". Later over 300 "Mendip Motor Cars" were built in the years immediately before and after World War 1 (only one survives). Pictured below are a couple of "Mendips" from a c 1911 catalogue (auctioned earlier this year by Cheffins). I would like to learn more about the mysterious C W Harris and his steam vehicles. And about the Bath - Radstock steam passenger service (if it really existed :rolleyes:).
 
Prosser on the "Heaton".

[Here is the second instalment of Prosser (1881) Chapter 21 (pp 108-110). It confirms much that we have previously discovered about the Heaton steam venture, but adds many new facts. I have updated our Heaton chronology accordingly.]

The next machine of the kind which originated in the town was that patented in 1830 by Messrs John, William, George and Reuben Heaton, sons of Ralph Heaton I, and uncles to the present Mr Alderman Ralph Heaton, who is the third of that name, his eldest son being the fourth. It was not exactly a "steam carriage", but rather what we should now call a "traction engine", as it was only adapted for drawing vehicles, not for carrying passengers. In fact the inventors called it a "steam drag", which sufficiently expresses its object.

One of its earliest appearances in the streets of Birmingham took place in October 1830, and a Bilston correspondent of the Mechanics' Magazine says that he was much "surprised" — as indeed he well might have been — on the thirteenth day of that month, "to meet a locomotive steam-engine in Bath Street, drawing a large cast-iron press, which, on enquiry, I was informed, weighed one ton eleven cwt exclusive of the carriage on which it was placed. It proceeded at a steady pace up Whittall Street, Steelhouse Lane, Bull Street, Temple Row, Waterloo Street, and Ann Street, to the manufactory of Mr Hardman, button and medal manufacturer, where the load was detached, and the engine started off at an amazing velocity, turning the corners of the streets right and left with the greatest exactness." The name of the engine was the "Enterprise".

Nothing seems to be recorded of the machine for about three years, but in the Mechanics' Magazine for 6 June 1833, there is a letter from Messrs Heaton describing the transport of a heavy press to Dudley. On that occasion nine miles were accomplished, with a load of twenty-five cwt, exclusive of the carriage and chains and five persons, in two hours and eight minutes, thirty-eight minutes of that time having been spent in procuring water and adjusting the load, which had accidentally slipped.

On the sixteenth of the next month the energetic brothers made a successful trip to Wolverhampton, a light wagon containing twenty-two persons being conveyed thirteen miles in one hour and fifty-six minutes, sixteen minutes of which were occupied in taking up and setting down passengers and taking in water. The return trip was not so successful, two accidents having happened to the machine during the journey.

The engine was out again as soon as the damage was repaired, and at six minutes past ten on 28 August it started from the mills in Shadwell Street, with a stage coach carrying fifteen passengers. Five others were picked up on the road; and the Bell Inn, Northfield, seven miles distant, was reached in four minutes under the hour. The Lickey Hill, which is nearly half a mile long, and rises on an average one in nine, was successfully ascended, the coach and nine passengers being conveyed to the top in nine minutes. From thence they proceeded to Bromsgrove, and on the return journey — to show how perfectly the machine was under control — the conductors brought it to a stand on the steepest part of the hill. The manufactory was reached at thirty-five minutes past four, the sharp ascent of Worcester Street, which rises one in twelve, being surmounted without difficulty, although the coach was at the time loaded with thirty-two passengers. The coke used during the entire journey of twenty-nine miles was eleven bushels, the value of which was half-a-crown. These particulars are taken from a report which Messrs Heaton communicated to the Mechanics' Magazine of 14 September 1833.

Encouraged by their success, steps were taken to form a company, and a meeting was held at the Union Tavern, in the middle of October, to appoint a committee. It was originally intended to issue 2,000 shares only, at £10 each, but in less than twenty-four hours 3,000 were eagerly purchased. By the following April they had risen to 10 premium, but the scheme was not a success, as the expenses of wear and tear attendant upon a speed of ten miles per hour were found to be too great to allow of profitable running.
 
Paine on James and Stephenson 1861.

For those who are interested in the "little book" referred to by Prosser in post #510 [E M S Paine's The Two James's and the Two Stephenson's; Or, the Earliest History of Passenger Transit on on Railways (London: by G Phipps, 1861)], it is available from Google Books here.

It should be noted that the author "E M S P" is none other than Ellen Paine, daughter of William James and sister of William Henry James. It is a spirited defence of WJ and WHJ, in which she "defeats her own object by overstating her case" (L T C Rolt in the introduction to a 1961 "centenary reprint" of Paine's book; quoted by Wikipedia).

There is an interesting website on William James senior, from which I "borrowed" the picture attached below. Sadly there is hardly a mention of his steam carriage pioneer son William Henry James.
 
Prosser on Church 1881.

[Here is the third instalment of Prosser (1881) Chapter 21 (pp 110-111). It concerns our Dr William Church and his steam carriage, on which subject Mr Prosser seems to be somewhat less well-informed than he is on the Heatons' venture. He also appears to be slightly infected by the anti-Church sentiment of the Mechanics' Magazine.]

Meanwhile another competitor had appeared in the field, and public opinion was much divided as to the relative merits of Heaton's carriage and that brought out by the indefatigable schemer, Dr Church, who obtained a patent for a steam coach in February 1832. What the real thing was we have no way of knowing, but according to a print published by Josiah Allen at the time, it was a sort of cross between the car of Juggernaut and a French diligence, with the additional peculiarity of having only three wheels. To the eye of the mechanic it presented a heavy, lumbering, and decidedly top-heavy appearance. Passengers were carried in a sort of hooded seat in front, similar to the banquette, as we believe it is called, of a diligence, on the roof, and in a coupé in front and behind. The centre of the structure is given up to the machinery and boiler. The drawing attached to the specification shows a somewhat different arrangement, there being no provision for outside passengers. The framing is specially designed to obtain as much stiffness as possible. The driving-wheels, which are enormous, are worked by pitch-chains from the engine shaft, and are supported on air springs. The boiler is upright, with a peculiar arrangement of syphon-tubes through which the heat passes. The engines are direct-acting, on the same construction as those for which the inventor obtained a patent in 1830, but in the steam-carriage their position is reversed, the crank-shaft being below the cylinder. In 1835 Dr Church obtained another patent, which contained several other and far handier forms of steam carriage. The document is of great length, and refers to a variety of subjects connected with the steam-engine. It is illustrated by no less than twenty-one large sheets of drawings.

For the purpose of working the patent the "London and Birmingham Steam Carriage Company" was formed, and it was stated in the prospectus — issued about June 1832 — that the engines would be of sixty horse-power, and capable of conveying a weight of fifteen tons at a rate of fifteen miles per hour. A certain "J H B", who wrote several letters dated from Birmingham in the Mechanics' Magazine of the day, warns the public "not to be entrapped into a delusive scheme", and twits the company with never having made any experiments to prove the truth of their assertions. Another correspondent advises the Doctor to "clip the wings of his flighty imagination, descend to more moderate plans, and confine his extravagant notions within more rational dimensions, before his attempts can have any chance of realising that practical success and utility which I wish him form the bottom of my heart most sincerely". In spite of this, and certain facetious remarks of another writer who called himself "Junius Redivivus", the shares continued to go up, and in April 1834 they were at 20 to 25 premium.

The carriage was first put upon the road by way of an experiment at the latter end of April 1834, but it met with an accident in turning a corner, and was hauled back by the workmen. We hear of it again through the local papers of the day in October of the same year. On the sixth of that month a trip was made on the London Road as far as Stone Bridge, when it attained a speed of ten miles per hour, even when ascending hills. An accident happened on the return journey which rendered it necessary to blow off the steam and draw the fire.

When the company was finally wound up we are unable to say, but in April 1835 the Mechanics' Magazine taunts the directors with their delay in putting carriages on the road. It was announced about that time that the directors were authorised to build a sufficient number to establish a regular system of communication between Birmingham and the metropolis. We believe that only one carriage was actually built, and it would be very interesting to know what became of it. For many years it lay disabled by the roadside, in the neighbourhood of Green Lanes, but it has probably long ago disappeared in the "infinite azure" of the melting pot. There was a Mr John Huggins, who was with Dr Church at the time, who might probably throw some light on the matter. Mr Huggins is, we believe, still residing somewhere in the neighbourhood.
 
[Here is the fourth and final instalment of Prosser (1881) Chapter 21 (pp 111-113).]

In spite of the failure of these attempts the notion that steam locomotion on common roads would eventually succeed appears to have survived in the breasts of the enthusiasts for some years. As late as November 1837, a Birmingham correspondent of the Mechanics' Magazine, signing himself as "L M B", enquired as to the prospects of the various schemes which had been proposed. This brought forward Mr George Millichap, an axle-tree manufacturer, who stated that he had a steam carriage nearly ready for trial. It was probably upon the principle of that mentioned in his patent of 1834, which consisted in a mere arrangement of gearing for actuating the wheels, and to which a steam engine might be applied. Millichap was also a patentee of axle-trees and boxes in 1820 and 1844. In his patent of 1820 he describes himself as of Worcester, coach builder.

Although it does not strictly belong to our subject we may here put on record the fact — vouched for by Mr F W Turner of Swansea in a letter of the Engineer of 14 June 1861 — that Dr Church's locomotive "Eclipse" was sold to haul coals on the Swansea Vale Railway. The engine was built in 1838, and was the first which ran a mile a minute, and was also the first tank-engine on four wheels. The construction was marked by profound mechanical skill; the connecting rods were hollow, and not parallel, but tapering according to the correct proportions. The reversing gear was elaborate and the piston well designed. In the following number of the above-mentioned journal Mr Richard Bach of this town wrote to say that the boiler which was in the "Eclipse" was not the original one, which exploded shortly after the engine was set to work, and was then refitted with a boiler of another construction.

It was remarked at the outset of this article that the experiments with steam carriages in this town did not lead to any important practical results, but an exception must be made in favour of Mr George Heaton. During their early trips it was found that the engine was so unsteady when working at 160 or 180 strokes per minute, that it was impossible for the men to keep their seats. "Being aware", Messrs Heaton observe, "that this motion could only be produced by some portions of our machinery being out of balance, we placed a compensating weight opposite each crank, and repeated our former experiment upon the same road, and found we attained greater speed with no greater consumption of fuel, and the machine travelled perfectly steady at any speed, and free from any symptoms of rocking or shaking". In due time the principle was applied to the counter-weighting of locomotives, with the most satisfactory results. Me George Heaton still continued to pursue the subject, directing his attention to the compensation of the disturbing action of the reciprocating weights in an engine. In 1847 he accordingly took out a patent for counterbalancing pistons by causing a corresponding weight to move in an opposite direction. It is not necessary to say more on the subject, as all the facts are on record, and it was, moreover, thoroughly discussed in the Engineer so recently as 30 January 1881.
 
Most useful - repaying you investment already! The 21 drawings attached to the 1835 patent is tantalising as is the fact that it lay in Green Lanes for years!!! Wonder if Huggins was the Engineer Harrison but misreported/typed?
 
Yes it's a valuable book! It has its limitations, though: only going up to 1830 for "new" industries, with extensions up to 1852 for industries already in existence by 1830. His list of Birmingham patents covers the period 1722-1852.

Perhaps our colleague mikejee can find John Huggins who flourished in 1833 and was still living in 1881 "somewhere in the neighbourhood" of Green Lanes. :)
 
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