Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive WorksBaldwin Locomotive Works
History
Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin locomotives; Locomotives -- Catalogs
By the time the order for the second locomotive was received, Mr.
Baldwin had matured this device and was prepared to embody it in
practical form. The order came from Mr. E. L. Miller in behalf of the
Charleston and Hamburg Railroad Company, and the engine bore his name,
and was completed February 18, 1834. It was on six wheels; one pair
being drivers, four and a half feet in diameter, with half-crank axle
placed back of the fire-box as above described, and the four front
wheels combined in a swiveling truck. The driving-wheels, it should be
observed, were cast in solid bell-metal. The combined wood and iron
wheels used on the "Ironsides" had proved objectionable, and Mr.
Baldwin, in his endeavors to find a satisfactory substitute, had
recourse to brass. June 29, 1833, he took out a patent for a
cast-brass wheel, his idea being that by varying the hardness of the
metal the adhesion of the drivers on the rails could be increased or
diminished at will. The brass wheels on the "Miller," however, soon
wore out, and the experiment with this metal was not repeated. The "E.
L. Miller" had cylinders ten inches in diameter; stroke of piston,
sixteen inches; and weighed, with water in the boiler, seven tons
eight hundredweight. The boiler had a high dome over the fire-box, as
shown in Figure 3; and this form of construction, it may be noted, was
followed, with a few exceptions, for many years.
The valve-motion was given by a single fixed eccentric for each
cylinder. Each eccentric-strap had two arms attached to it, one above
and the other below, and, as the driving-axle was back of the
fire-box, these arms were prolonged backward under the footboard, with
a hook on the inner side of the end of each. The rock-shaft had arms
above and below its axis, and the hooks of the two rods of each
eccentric were moved by hand-levers so as to engage with either arm,
thus producing backward or forward gear. This form of single
eccentric, peculiar to Mr. Baldwin, was in the interest of simplicity
in the working parts, and was adhered to for some years. It gave rise
to an animated controversy among mechanics as to whether, with its
use, it was possible to get a lead on the valve in both directions.
Many maintained that this was impracticable; but Mr. Baldwin
demonstrated by actual experience that the reverse was the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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