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Title: |
1879 Article-Aveling & Porter, 1860 Steam Traction Engine |
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The Engineer Magazine, 04 Jul 1879 pg. 17 |
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Insert Date: |
1/13/2013 10:34:41 PM |
We illustrate above one of the first traction engines ever built by Messrs. Aveling and Porter, of Rochester. It was constructed in 1860, and is exhibited in the museum at Kilburn. The principal features of the engine will be readily understood. Not the least interesting point about it is the improved steering gear, subsequently made subject of a patent. In the youth of traction engines, they were always provided with shafts and steered by a horse, and strange tales have been told of the behavior of horse accustomed to be pushed along a road, when they were afterwards employed to draw carts which did not push. In the engine shown, the shafts are retained, an iron bar is fastened to them, and in this is a hole in which turns the shank of the fork in which is placed the disc steering wheel. The steersman sat on a board nailed across the shafts, near the smoke box. Engines were steered in this way with the greatest ease, but the arrangement was not satisfactory for going round sharp corners and has been disused for some years. The great objection to it was that when an engine has to be adjusted in position, as for driving a thrashing machine, it must be "locked" round in a very small space. The fore carriage can thus be locked round while the engine is standing still with the modern steering gear used by Messrs. Fowler and Co., Charles Burrell and Sons, or Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth, which could not be properly done with the steering arrangement of 1860, which only acted when the engine was in motion.
Image Courtesy of Grace's Guide
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im1879v48Er-Ave1.jpg |
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Aveling & Porter, 1860 Steam Traction Engine
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