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Title: |
1874 Article-Aveling & Porter, Steam Traction Engine with Crane & Road & Farm Locomotive |
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Source: |
Scientific American, V 30, #22, 30 May 1874, pg. 335 |
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Insert Date: |
2/11/2024 11:55:19 AM |
The traction engine and train of wagons which we illustrate are the manufacture of Messrs. Aveling & Porter, of Rochester, England, and were awarded the prize medals Progress and Merit at the Vienna Exposition of last year. The steam road rollers, built by the same eminent firm, were also awarded similar medals for Progress and Merit.
Since the very important experiments with road engines at Paris, in 1867, and Wolverhampton, England, in 1871, their value, as substitutes for animal power, as feeders for railroads, as pioneers in new districts, and eventually as superseders of horse-drawn portable engines, is becoming generally and intelligently recognized. The number of these engines built up to this time, by Messrs. Aveling & Porter, exceeds one thousand, and the trade is rapidly developing.
The engines are very strongly made and manifest the greatest care in their construction. The facility with which they are guided and driven, both operations being performed by the same man, exhibits much progress and ingenuity. The simplicity of the machines enables them, it is claimed, to be worked at a small cost for wear and tear, and the liability to accident from breakage is reduced to a minimum. A large amount of boiler room is given to each engine and the furnaces are constructed to burn either wood or coal. Their economy in this respect is stated to be very great. At the Wolverhampton trials an Aveling 10 horse engine, fitted with a single slide and ordinary link motion, indicated 35 horsepower with a consumption of three and one fifth pounds of coal per horsepower per hour.
The following testimony of Mr. D. Brennan, the President of the Telford Pavement Company, of Orange, N. J., who has two of these road locomotives, is given, as showing their value for hauling purposes: "We have used, for hauling stone, one of the Aveling & Porter 6 horsepower traction engines, purchased of you, and with very satisfactory results. We hauled with this engine (with engineer and one assistant) about 75 tons per day, a distance of a mile and a quarter, over a new road. There is no doubt that even better results can be obtained at longer distances, where the delays of loading and unloading are not so frequent, especially if on a good road. We consider that these engines will do hauling for one third the cost of the same work done by horses, at $5 per day for team and driver, hauling one and a half tons at a load; and we are making preparations for a more extensive use of them in the future." The smaller engraving shows one of the ordinary road locomotives fitted with a crane to lift two tons. It has iron wheels, fitted with compensating motion to its drivers, to enable it to turn very sharp corners with facility. It is also driven and steered by one man. Crane engines similar to this, and built by the same firm, were used at the Vienna Exposition during the erection of the building and did a vast amount of excellent work in unloading and removing the heavy packages of merchandize as they a rived on the grounds.
Mr. W. C. Oastler, 43 Exchange Place, New York city, is Messrs. Aveling & Porter's agent in the United States. |
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1874 Aveling & Porter, Steam Traction Engine with Crane
1874 Aveling & Porter, Road & Farm Locomotive
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