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Birmingham Steam Buses 1824-1910.

William Dauney (1800-1843).

[Just for the record, here is a "potted biography" of William Dauney, John Scott Russell's partner in the Glasgow – Paisley steam carriage business. Corrections, additions and comments are welcome.]

William Dauney (27 October1800 - 28 July 1843) was born in Aberdeen, the son of William Dauney of Falmouth, Jamaica. He was educated at Dulwich College, London, and at the University of Edinburgh (where he was President of the Speculative Society 1821-1822). He was called to the Scottish Bar on 13 June 1823. On 7 September 1826 at Aberdeen he married Margaret, eldest daughter of John Black of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dauney is best known as a music critic and historian and archaeologist of Scottish music. In 1831-1832 he served on a three-man committee to investigate and organize the music literature in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. In that library he found the Skene Manuscript, which he published as Ancient Scotish [sic] Melodies, from a Manuscript of the Reign of James VI: with an introductory Enquiry illustrative of the History of the Music of Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Printing and Publishing Company; London: Smith Elder & Co, 1838). The work shows what are probably the earliest versions of many Scottish tunes. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and contributed to the Foreign Quarterly Review (1831), the Edinburgh Review (1836), and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1841), always on musical subjects.

In early 1834 Dauney entered into a partnership with John Scott Russell (1808-1882), trading as the Steam Carriage Company of Scotland and the Grove House Engine Manufactory of Edinburgh. Six steam carriages to Russell's design were built and operated on a Glasgow - Paisley passenger service from about March 1834 until 29 July 1834 when the boiler of one of the carriages exploded, killing at least four people and injuring many others. The consequent failure of the business venture caused the bankruptcy of the partners. Dauney's bankruptcy was discharged on 8 November 1837. Russell and Dauney sued the Glasgow Road Trustees (whom they held responsible for the accident) for damages of £10,000 and the case dragged on until after June 1836 (with unknown outcome).

In about 1839 Dauney went to Demerara as Solicitor-General for British Guiana (appointment gazetted 23 March 1843). He died in Georgetown, Demerara. His widow Margaret died on 22 November 1874 (aged 74) at Wardle Avenue, Edinburgh.
 
motorman-mike said:
Aiden, many thanks for finding a photo of the Belliss (correct spelling)& Morcom steam bus, proof positive it existed. Now we need to know whether it used the streets of Birmingham on test or to reach the LGOC under it's own steam in order to claim the distinction of there definitely having been a steam bus on Birmingham's streets, better still actually built in the city....
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Shurely the question should be rephrased? Is there any proof that it wasn't driven under it's own steam from Birmingham to London? It is the more likely scenario as the alternative would be to steam up a Pancras or similar and drag it down there - very inefficient....
 
DavidGrain said:
No the vehicle was more modern than that. I was just commenting on the fact that it had an old Smethwick Registration.

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Hope I have attached this file of my drawing of the vehicle as computer does not seem to be doing as it is toild. Thinking back it must be some 12 years ago that I saw the vehicle but in the life expectancy of electric vehicles this is not so long ago.
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Thanks for playing anyway David. You may well be setting a new trend on the Thread but I shudder fitfully to imagine the out-pouring of some of the "Beautiful Mind"s on here....
 
Thylacine said:
On that note, I reckon it's time for another "steam blast from the past" musical interlude. How about Eric Burdon and the Animals with "House of the Rising Steam" (1964). Rare and good quality colour video footage. (What's the decimal equivalent of "footage"?). It might be the wrong time of day for some of you. If so, just save it for later. ;) :222:
Click to expand...

Well the night is drawing in here, and while the candle gutters fitfully I replayed it. NICE. Great find & in high definition. Shortly after they had their own faux hippy period and recorded "Monterey" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLo8GJJLUhE&feature=related which I have long found interesting as a rare example of a song that not only records an historical event but name checks the headline acts and copies a snatch of each of their music too.

Thank also for David shot of the concrete cows hibernation "They're going back to Milton Keynes; to wear that ball and chain"
 
Molesworth, thanks for that reminder of the legendary Monterey Pop Festival (1967). The Thylacine got there (as usual) two days after everyone had gone home. But he did catch a glimpse of Janis Joplin as she sped away in her Porsche 356 convertible, tossing him half a bottle of Southern Comfort, which he caught deftly in his jaws. Seen below are that fabulous Porsche [picture 1], a biopic of the fabled owner [picture 2], and the cover of the book [picture 3] from which the biopic was taken: The Hippie Dictionary by John Bassett McCleary (who really was there).

[Well :offtopic: but Ms Joplin certainly "raised the steam", and there is "the love bus"! ;)]
 
Astoness has posted here a lovely big picture of a lovely big Belliss and Morcom Ltd stationary steam engine seen at Summer Lane power station in 1905. I've reproduced the picture below (smaller and cropped) just to give you a taste. Steamjunk heaven! :cool:
 
Here from the Newcomen Society is the first page of J Edward Belliss's "History of G E Belliss & Company and Belliss & Morcom Limited" (3 February 1965). That's all you get for free: they want £10 for the full pdf (I resisted the temptation ;) [if it had been £5 I would have succumbed; they are losing money by overcharging! :P]). Even the first page reveals some interesting facts about George Edward Belliss:
Born in Birmingham on 30 August 1838, the son of John Belliss (formerly of Roden, Shropshire).
Apprenticed to R Bach & Co (Richard and Francis Bach) on 18 January 1855 for a period of 4 years 7 months and a fee of £99 19s.
Formed a partnership with engineer Joseph John Seekings in December 1861, and purchased R Bach & Co, which was renamed to Belliss & Seekings.​
And here is a link to a Belliss & Morcom enthusiast's thread on PracticalMachinist.com, with some nice pictures of stationary engines and factory interiors. [Molesworth, there's also an amuing Birmingham Telecom Tower anecdote there. :D]
 
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The Newcomen Society must have seen us comen! :D Thanks for spotting the correction (post #799 amended accordingly). Even if I'd forked out the £10, there's no guarantee that the article would have enlightened us further about the B & M steam bus of November 1907. Not to worry: the BHF magic will reveal all anyway. Just give us time!

[Good heavens! Another page already! :shocked:]
 
A Slough of Despond on BSB after the recent highs? Got the munchies? Grindng in a gravel patch? Let me attempt to crank the handle a little with a root around "Science & Society"

* Bramah Steam Carriage 1832 & the steam carriage designed by Mr Hill of Deptford 1840 - both have been on before but I think these are better representations to whet your appetite.

* "Locomotion - A few small inconveniences, there's nothing perfect" - Hand-coloured engraving by Shortshanks after a drawing by Robert Seymour, published by Thomas McLean of 26 Haymarket, London

* 'Richard Trevithick's London Road Carriage' - Oil painting by Terence Cuneo (1907-1996), showing the London Steam Carriage of 1803 by pioneering Cornish engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). Trevithick developed a cylindrical boiler which could withstand steam at higher pressures. This new engine was well suited to driving vehicles, and this carriage became the first self-powered passenger-carrying vehicle in the world, when it was driven 10 miles around Paddington and Islington, London in 1803. Cuneo trained at the Slade and Chelsea schools of art in London, and from the 1940s onwards was commissioned to produced artwork for railway posters. He also painted portraits and ceremonial and military subjects.
 
A rather more "modern" steam machine. a sainsburys Sentinal delivery van from c 1921, well, it may have only delivered to stores.

SainsburysSentinel_steam_wagon_c_1921.jpg
 
It is either severe artistic license, painting say 125 years later, or there is a definite design flaw to the carriage entrance/exit. Stoker's footplate seems a bit precarious too...
 
Our Penfold posted a video of Tom Brogden's modern replica of the 1803 Trevithick steam carriage on MRED ages ago (post #764). He's actually had the pleasure (?) of driving it. And the conundrum of getting in and out of the beast is solved a little later on the same page (post #774).

[Well, that's enough excitement for the Thylacine for one day. Goodnight all! zzz]
 
Thanks - memory not what it should be - trust Lloyd to already have had a go! Sleep "tight" Thylacine
 
Good morning all! For the first time for a long while, there have been no posts while I've been sleeping. Everyone's obviously busy doing research!

[Actually it's nice to have a bit of a breather. ;)]
 
[Everyone's been observing a day's silence in memory of all those "blown to atoms" by steam boiler explosions. However, "time and steam wait for no man" (i e person). ;)]

Here's a lovely late 1820s print by George Cruikshank called "Locomotion". From left to right we see: a steam walker ("Walking by Steam"), a steam carriage ("Riding by Steam"), and a steam ornithopter ("Flying by Steam").

[From the delightful "Regency Illustrations" website. We've seen that "teapot carriage" somewhere before.]

[Note added: the disturbing "Man Amplifiers" webpage has colour versions of this picture and its "companion", Molesworth's "Locomotion" picture (post #806), both ascribed to Robert Seymour. A note explains the confusion as to the creator: "Etched signature below image, 'Shortshanks del. s.p.' pseudonym for Robert Seymour and was a play on Cruikshank who threatened to sue so Seymour stopped using it. The illustrations are sometimes incorrectly attributed to George Cruikshank, a contemporary of Robert Seymour who used the same publisher, Thomas McLean."]
 
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Nice find & most delightful site. Love the recurring teapot theme & the mechanical walker idea seems to have been prevalent (a bit "wrong trousers")

There is another relevant cartoon on the site (I think Lloyd may have posted a version of it previously):
Satire on the coming age of steam ("A View in Whitechapel Road", after H. T. Alken, 1831):
The two large steam coaches are named "The Infernal Defiance -- From Yarmouth to London" and "The Dreadful Vengeance -- Colchester, London"
On the rear of the coach in front is a banner proclaiming "Warranted free from Damp", the small delivery wagon has "Bread served Hot" on its side, and the service station proclaims "Coals Sold Here: only 4s. 6d. per Pound(?)"
As Paul Johnson has documented in his book The Birth of the Modern, the early British railroad companies were at pains to preclude any possible competition from free-running steam coaches (which may not have been too practicable anyway...).
 
Lovely! :thumbsup:

[I've added a note to post #815: the "Locomotion" pair are by Seymour, not Cruikshank. Below are the pair in colour and magnified (sourced from Mark Harden's Archive). Sadly the "speech bubbles" are illegible.]
 
Here's a picture of BSB steamjunkies trialling their new steam calliope prior to its installation in the BSB Penfold "not-Heaton" stretch steam charabanc. Notice that it comes with pre-recorded rolls for playing BSB favourite tunes ("So rise the steam", "Steamway to Heaven" and so on).

[Allegedly from Knight's New Mechanical Dictionary (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co, 1884) by Edward Henry Knight (1 June 1824 - 22 January 1883), but I can't find it there. (Observe Hero's aeolipile on the title page!) Sourced from the excellent New York Public Library "Digital Gallery".]
 
The Denny Calliope 1859.

[From the Illustrated London News (3 December 1859). Source: the New York Public Library "Digital Gallery".]

The Calliope.

A musical instrument known by the above name has been lately brought over from America by the inventor, Mr Arthur S Denny, and is now being exhibited for the first time in England in the central transept of the Crystal Palace. It may also be characterised as a steam-organ, and consists of a framework of iron supporting two cylinders, upon which are arranged a series of brass tubes, answering to the open diapasons of an organ, but bearing a strong resemblance to the ordinary steam-locomotive whistle. From a boiler situated beneath the flooring the steam is conveyed into the cylinders, and from them admitted to the pipes, which produce the notes, through double-balance valves, opened by levers in connection with wires acted upon by ordinary pianoforte keys, or by pegs on a set cylinder similar to that of a barrel-organ. The instrument at the Crystal Palace is the softest-toned ever made, and is played upon at a pressure of five pounds to the square inch — the maximum pressure employed in the church organ being but five ounces. The peculiarity of the invention consists in the fact that instruments are constructed in which the force of steam may be increased to the extent of a hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch, producing musical sounds thirty times as powerful as those of the calliope now exhibiting; and ... On account of the quantity of steam given off during the performance the instrument has not been hitherto available for indoor exhibition; but if, in place of steam, it be used with condensed air better music is produced and an equally powerful effect [heresy! :shock:].

Various are the uses to which it is suggested the power of the calliope may be applied, amongst others as a means of conveying the orders of a General on the field of battle by signals to be heard by the whole army; it is also capable of being used as a substitute for a chime of bells, and in St Louis and New Orleans it has often been employed in this manner. A lighthouse belonging to the English Government, and situated on the coast of Nova Scotia, is provided with a calliope for making signal; the Pacha of Egypt has one fixed on board his private steamer as a musical instrument; and in this way they are frequently used in the United States.

Although the harmonies are, from the employment of steam, not always perfect, still the effect of the melody is decidedly pleasing to the ear; and, as a musical novelty, the calliope must be considered to possess many claims on the attention of the public.
 
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