Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive WorksBaldwin Locomotive Works
History
Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin locomotives; Locomotives -- Catalogs
favorable terms by the Philadelphia newspapers, and was made the
subject of a report by the Committee on Science and Arts of the
Franklin Institute, who strongly recommended this plan of engine for
freight service. The success of the trial led Mr. Baldwin at first to
believe that the geared engine would be generally adopted for freight
traffic; but in this he was disappointed. No further demand was made
for such machines, and no more of them were built.
In 1840, Mr. Baldwin received an order, through August Belmont, Esq.,
of New York, for a locomotive for Austria, and had nearly completed
one which was calculated to do the work required, when he learned that
only sixty pounds pressure of steam was admissible, whereas his engine
was designed to use steam at one hundred pounds and over. He
accordingly constructed another, meeting this requirement, and shipped
it in the following year. This engine, it may be noted, had a kind of
link-motion, agreeably to the specification received, and was the
first of his make upon which the link was introduced.
Mr. Baldwin's patent of December 31, 1840, already referred to as
covering his geared engine, embraced several other devices, as
follows:
1. A method of operating a fan, or blowing-wheel, for the purpose of
blowing the fire. The fan was to be placed under the footboard, and
driven by the friction of a grooved pulley in contact with the flange
of the driving-wheel.
2. The substitution of a metallic stuffing, consisting of wire, for
the hemp, wool, or other material which had been employed in
stuffing-boxes.
3. The placing of the springs of the engine truck so as to obviate the
evil of the locking of the wheels when the truck-frame vibrates from
the centre-pin vertically. Spiral as well as semi-elliptic springs,
placed at each end of the truck-frame, were specified. The spiral
spring is described as received in two cups,--one above and one below.
The cups were connected together at their centres by a pin upon one
and a socket in the other, so that the cups could approach toward or
recede from each other and still preserve their parallelism.
4. An improvement in the manner of constructing the iron frames of
locomotives, by making the pedestals in one piece with, and
constituting part of, the frames.
5. The employment of spiral springs in connection with cylindrical
pedestals and boxes. A single spiral was at first used, but, not
proving sufficiently strong, a combination or nest of spirals curving
alternately in opposite directions was afterward employed. Each spiral
had its bearing in a spiral recess in the pedestal.
In the specification of this patent a change in the method of making
cylindrical pedestals and boxes is noted. Instead of boring and
turning them in a lathe, they were cast to the required shape in
chills. This method of construction was used for a time, but
eventually a return was made to the original plan, as giving a more
accurate job.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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