William Brunton seems to have been an inventive chap and this rather eccentric invention does appear to have worked for a while.
The most novel and ingenious of his inventions was the walking machine called the Steam Horse, which he made at Butterley in 1813 for use on the company's tramway at Crich. A second one was built for the Newbottle colliery, which worked with a load up a gradient of 1 in 36 during all the winter of 1814. Early in 1815, through some carelessness, this machine exploded and killed thirteen persons.
The most novel and ingenious of his inventions was the walking machine called the Steam Horse, which he made at Butterley in 1813 for use on the company's tramway at Crich. A second one was built for the Newbottle colliery, which worked with a load up a gradient of 1 in 36 during all the winter of 1814. Early in 1815, through some carelessness, this machine exploded and killed thirteen persons.
2 comments:
A machine moving itself is an idea of genius. Once the principle has been accepted, it's easy to see how an inventor might begin to copy existing forms of locomotion as a means of getting it to do this. I'm puzzled, though, as to why he couldn't see that it was easier to get the power to turn wheels directly. Maybe at the time nobody had thought of a form of linkage that could turn the back-and-forth of the piston into rotary motion? Wheels were just things that allowed the machine to roll along with less friction, rather than things to which energy could be applied.
I'm sure this is risibly basic history-of-engineering stuff, but even know-nothings like me can amuse themselves with it. What's the first bit of kit that allows a piston to turn a wheel - like on a steam loco? And did people think that it was theoretically possible, and then raced to build something that would do it? Or was there one "Aha!" moment?
Whatever, that bit of kit has a certain gallantry. We might have had these things striding along pushing all the passenger steam trains. Albeit slowly and very inefficiently, of course.
Sam - I think Brunton would have known about getting steam-powered reciprocating motion to the wheels as that had already been done by Trevithick. Maybe he was interested in tackling inclines? Butterley was on the Cromford canal and there were major inclines at Cromford down which stone had to be transported from the High Peak.
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