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John Ramsbottom: locomotive engineer |
| Professional papers Patents
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Biography
Robin Pennie has produced an excellent
biography. John Ramsbottom was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, on 11 September
1814, the son of a cotton spinner who owned the only steam-driven mill in
the area. He was educated by local school masters and Baptist ministers.
His practical training started at his father's mill, where he was given a
lathe and built small working steam engines. He then rebuilt and re-erected
the beam engine at his father's mill and invented the weft fork, later adopted
universally, which enabled looms to be worked at high speed. He was an active
and enthusiastic member of the Todmorden Mechanics' Institute, showing quick
perception and ability in all mechanical matters.
In about 1839 he went to Manchester and joined
Sharp, Roberts & Co., who had a
high reputation as builders of locomotives and cotton spinning machinery.
Here he gained experience in locomotive building and his ability sufficiently
impressed Charles F. Beyer, in charge of the
locomotive department, so that in 1842 he recommended Ramsbottom as locomotive
superintendent of the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, which in 1846 became
part of the London and North Western, of which he was then appointed district
superintendent of the North Eastern Division. In 1857 he was
promoted to locomotive superintendent of the Northern Division, covering
all routes of the LNWR north of Rugby, at Crewe works.
Ramsbottom was a first-rate organizer, a brilliant inventor, and he
had an endearing personality. His first important contribution to the locomotive
engineering world was the double-beat regulator valve. This was introduced
in 1850; it was followed two years later by the split piston ring
and the ancestor of the modern mechanical coaling plant; and in 1856
(see Patents below) by the displacement lubricator and the safety valves
which bear his name. Towards the end of 1858 appeared the first of
his celebrated 'DX' 0-6-0 goods engines, of which altogether 943 were
built, representing one of the earliest examples of mass production. They
were provided with screw-reversing gear, yet another Ramsbottom
invention.
Griffiths tells a story (which he stated is almost
"folklore") of a meeting between Bessemer and Ramsbottom in which the former
advocated the use of Bessemer steel for rails, to which the response was
reply is supposed to have been 'do you wish me to be tried for manslaughter?'
And it was only after rigorous testing that Ramsbottom permitted trials of
steel rails (earlier steels had been too hard and brittle for use in rails).
Following this a Bessemer plant was installed at Crewe
Works.
In 1859 he built the first of his 2-2-2 type express locomotives,
two of which took part in the railway 'race' between the East coast and Westcoast
companies from London to Edinburgh in 1888, and in 1863 he developed the
2-4-0 type for use over more heavily graded routes.
In 1862 Ramsbottom became all-line chief mechanical engineer of the
LNWR, Britain's largest railway, with locomotive construction concentrated
at Crewe works. His mechanical and organizing abilities were given full scope
during the rapid development of these works, where he introduced Bessemer
open-hearth steel-making. In 1868 he installed Siemens-Martin furnaces. He
reduced the number of individual locomotive types and standardized their
components to the greatest possible extent, and new machine tools and equipment
ensured accuracy in manufacture and facilitated transfer of components within
the works The result was a more than twofold increase in the rate of locomotive
production.
He was the inventor of water pick-up troughs laid between the rails,
whereby a scoop lowered into the trough from the locomotive or tender allowed
additional water to be picked up whilst the train was running, thus making
possible much longer non-stop runs. First applied in 1860, this was rapidly
extended to most British and some American and French main-line railways.
In 1870 locomotive haulage replaced steel-rope haulage of trains up the steep
gradient from Liverpool, and Ramsbottom designed ventilating extractor fans
to remove foul air and smoke from the tunnel.
Ramsbottom retired in 1871, having been responsible for the
construction of 1,035 locomotives at Crewe since his appointment fourteen
years previously. In 1871 he retired from the LNWR. In 1883 he became consulting
engineer and subsequently a director of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway,
where he was responsible for the design and construction of their Horwich
(Bolton) locomotive works and was chairman of the rolling-stock and locomotive
workshop committees. He was also a director of Beyer, Peacock, & Co.,
locomotive builders, a firm in which his two sons held important positions.
He died in 1897, when many of his inventions were still in use on
the more modem engines designed by his famous successor, F.
W. Webb.
A modest and kindly man, he took a great interest in technical education
and was a governor of Owens College, Manchester, where in 1873 he endowed
the Ramsbottom scholarship for young men in the locomotive department of
LNWR. He was a founder member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
in 1847 and its president in 1870-1. He was a member of the Institution of
Civil Engineers from 1866 and received the honorary degree of M.Eng. from
the University of Dublin. Ramsbottom died on 20 May 1897 at his home
in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and was buried in Macclesfield cemetery.
Reed's major account of Crewe Works
amplifies the above concise notes:
Ramsbottom was possibly the most remarkable engineer ever to be connected
with Crewe works. He was born at Todmorden, the son of a small cotton spinner
who owned the first steam-driven mill in the valley. John had little in the
way of schooling, being trained by and worked for his father, but he schemed-out
and made other machinery for the district, and at the age of 20 took out
a patent in conjunction with his uncle, Richard Holt, for the improvement
of power looms to weave two pieces of fabric at one time. His first 24 years
were spent in his birthplace, after which he went as a journeyman on textile
machinery to the Manchester works of Sharp Roberts, where he came under the
influence of two outstanding men, Richard Roberts and Charles
Beyer. From them probably came his appreciation of accurate
measurement and its application to batch production. Eight of his testimonials
from residents of the Todmorden area dated 1839 still survive, and everyone
mentions the reliability of his character.
At Sharp Roberts he must have been drafted early onto locomotive work,
and there he attracted the notice of Beyer, who had the locomotive side in
his hands. Some three years later a recommendation from Beyer helped Ramsbottom
to get the job of locomotive running foreman, under the engineer, of the
newly-opened Manchester & Birmingham Railway, though he had no experience
of railways at all. He took up this position in May 1842, and was promoted
to take charge of the locomotive and rolling stock department of the MBR
at œ170 a year in November 1843 when that section was separated from
the chief engineer's department.
He retained that position when the MBR was absorbed into the LNWR,
and when the lines between Manchester and Leeds were opened in 1849 the engines
also came into Ramsbottom's charge as part of the new North Eastern Division
stock — his salary was advanced to £500 a year from £300,
and in 1853 was stepped up to £850. The LNWR board thought so well of
him that in 1856 he was given charge of the rail rolling mill at Crewe, though
his headquarters continued at Longsight, Manchester. During his time on the
NED he took out nine patents, including the split piston ring (1855),
safety-valve (1856), feed pump, turntables, hoists for raising and lowering
locomotives, and a coal hoist.
He was made locomotive superintendent of the combined Northern and
North Eastern Divisions of the LNWR in 1857, and in 1862 became the first
all-line locomotive superintendent at a salary of £2,000 a year, increased
to £3,000 as from 1 January 1864 and to £5,000 from 1 January 1869,
a reflection of the greatly increased responsibilities, including the steel
plant, he was holding and the amazingly good job he was making of them. These
salaries set the pace for the 19th century chiefs at Crewe; Cawkwell, the
LNWR general manager from 1858 to 1874, never had more than £3,000 a
year, nor did his successor, George Findlay, ever rise to the £5,000
level in the next 18 years. Ramsbottom's salaries also began the enormous
gap between the remuneration of No 1 in the locomotive department and those
of the various Nos 2, none of whom had more than 20 percent of the chiefs
salary. This big gap continued to the end of the LNWR and in later years
caused trouble in the line of succession. Much of the work done by Ramsbottom
at Crewe is detailed in Chapter 5; extensions of it included the mechanical
ventilation of Edge Hill tunnels at Liverpool in 1871 when endless-rope haulage
was replaced by locomotive power, the solution being based on a Ramsbottom
patent of March 1869.
Largely through the enormous amount of work that he did for over a
dozen years, and the strain of accomplishing it to the satisfaction of himself
and Richard Moon, he began to wear out in 1870, and the stress became more
intense in the summer and autumn by his presidency of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, though he gave no presidential address, and by the
death of the then Crewe works manager. In September 1870 he told the Board
he would have to retire at the end of twelve months, and his absences became
more prolonged in 1871. For some years after the end of September 1871 the
LNWR board retained him as consulting engineer at £1000 a
year.
The complete release from the immense day-by-day administrative task
and the large extensions of Crewe Works and the locomotive department made
the cure. By 1875, at 60 years of age, he was back to full health and vigour,
and remained a hale and hearty man with firm lines for another 20 years.
He took up outside consulting work, though he was already wealthy from his
large salary and patent royalties. Altogether he took out 40 patents, but
only three of them came after his retirement from Crewe. Nine were related
to steel and steel-making; six, over 14 years, were to do with fluids. The
first of them in 1851 resulted from his suggestion to the LNWR board in January
1849 of fitting a cheap apparatus in the nature of a gas meter, to record
mileage and speed run by each engine."
In 1883 he was appointed consulting mechanical engineer to the LYR,
where in collaboration with Barton Wright, the locomotive superintendent,
he planned the new Horwich works and specified its equipment. On the death
of Lord Houghton in 1885 he was elected a director of the LYR and became
chairman of the locomotive committee, in which position he greatly influenced
and supported his old apprentice John Aspinall, who had succeeded Barton
Wright. [This period is covered in great
depth by H.A.V. Bulleid in his biography of Aspinall). He resigned only
in 1896 on account of age. Also in 1883 he became a director of the Beyer
Peacock private company, formed some years after the death of Charles Beyer
had terminated the original partnership. Here he strengthened the close relations
he had maintained with Gorton Foundry from its inception in 1855.
One cannot record that Ramsbottom was a nepotist, and he promoted
no one above his capacity; yet he had a strong family feeling and helped
his sons, cousins and nephews into jobs, but thereafter left them to make
their own way. His sons, John Goodfellow and George
Holt, were trained at Gorton Foundry in preference to Crewe from 1880
and 1884. Both remained with Beyer Peacock until February 1900, attaining
increasingly responsible positions.Ramsbottom's younger cousins,
Frank Holt (1825-93) and
Charles Holt (1830-1900) also were in locomotive
work. The former began an apprenticeship with Sharp Roberts and Sharp Bros
before Ramsbottom left, and later went to Crewe, and while there was put
in charge of the South Staffordshire Railway locomotive working as Trevithick's
representative while the ND had oversight. Later he was for a short time
in India, and then was with Beyer Peacock, R. & W. Hawthorn, and the
Midland Railway, and was works manager at Derby until he died. He was credited
with the initiation of steam sanding. His brother Charles was works manager
at Gorton Foundry from 1877 to 1900. Robert Ramsbottom Lister, son of one
of John Ramsbottom's sisters, was taken on as an apprentice at Gorton Foundry
in 1869 and remained with Beyer Peacock all his working life, being
chief draughtsman 1890-1900 and works manager April 1900. A second nephew,
Frederic John Ramsbottom Sutcliffe, became a Crewe apprentice in 1860, and
as a result of his experience at the original 'melts' he went into the private
steel industry and became well known.
John Ramsbottom's principal characteristic was supreme competence.
He was a completely objective man, and though well aware of his worth he
was not egotistic. His manner was pleasant; he had no vanity, and no one
laughed more heartily than he at Wodehouse's quip at the farewell Crewe dinner
in 1871 that the new home of Mr Ramsbottom had hitherto been the property
of a Mr Sidebottom and was situated at Broadbottom. Cusack Roney in 1868
described him as "the earnest, persevering, never-tiring John Ramsbottom."
He had the ability to pick good subordinates from the choice available, and
once he had trained them to his ways and became confident that they could
stand the pace, he did not trouble them from day to day, and he saw to it
that they had regular increases in salary. From his humble beginnings he
rose not only to pre-eminence in the world of mechanical engineering, but
also one day entertained the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to luncheon
in his house near the works after Edward had made a tour of the shops in
January 1866. This was at a time when there was more social protocol than
in later years, and before Lord Richard Grosvenor (later Lord Stalbridge)
had joined the LNWR board and brought a succession of distinguished visitors
to Crewe.
On his retirement Ramsbottom was entertained formally by the LNWR
board at Euston Hotel. Among those present at the dinner were the Lord Mayor
of London, the Duke of Buckingham, who (as the Marquis of Chandos) had been
LNWR chairman 1855-60, a critical period in Ramsbottom's career, Charles
Beyer and Sir Joseph Whitworth. In 1873 Ramsbottom donated £1,000 to
Owens College, Manchester, to found a two-year scholarship for LNWR locomotive
department employees under 21 years. Another event ofhis time at Crewe was
the naming ofa new street after him; in 1872 Webb named one of the new express
2-4-0s in his honour. Ramsbottom was a founder member of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers, and when he died at Alderley Edge on 23 May 1897
only two founder members remained: his friend Peter Rothwell Jackson of the
Salford Rolling Mills and Richard Williams of Wednesbury. A year or two after
his death a memorial window was put into the then new chancel of Christ Church,
Crewe. Ramsbottom's estate was proved at the large sum of £144,372,
but he made no bequests outside the family, nor was he known to contribute
to organised charities. The silver plate given him by the company when he
retired was much prized, and he left it specifically as a family
heirloom.
In 1860, at the close of his career, John Ramsbottom was awarded an
honorary Master of Engineering degree by Dublin University. The tendency
of outstanding British locomotive designers to get their engineering degrees
after their life's work was finished, and honoris causa too, explains a lot
about British locomotive design. Or rather, it explains why Britain fell
behind more academically-conscious nations as soon as the pioneering phase
was over. Ramsbottom might in fact be described as the last of the great
British locomotive engineers. By the time he retired most of the inventions
and innovations which could be developed by shrewdness and mechanical intuition
had made their appearance, and it was the theoreticians armed with an academic
approach who would make the next real advances. England's Churchward was
perhaps an exception, but apart from him it was non-British engineers with
years of academic study behind them who set the pace: the American Professor
Goss, the German Professor Schmidt, and that keen student of thermodynamics,
Andre Chapelon. What happened when a theoretician without academic training
got into the saddle would be shown by Ramsbottom's successor, Webb, whose
pursuit of a valid improvement (compounding), combined with an inability
to make use of evidence in a scientific way, led to the construction of hundreds
of deficient locomotives on the London & North Western Railway. Ramsbottom
was born near Manchester in 1814 and acquired his initial engineering experience
working for Sharp, Roberts, & Company; the same firm which had set Charles
Beyer on the locomotive-designing road. The early forties were a good period
for engineers in search of rapid advancement, and at the age of twenty-eight
he secured the job of managing the Longsight Works of the Manchester &
Birmingham Railway, a company which soon afterwards became part of one of
Britain's major railways, the London & North Western. Thus in 1846 Ramsbottom
was distinct locomotive superintendent of the LNWR.' s North Eastern Division.
The following year he gained additional distinction by reading a paper on
boilers to the first meeting in Birmingham of the newly-founded Institution
of Mechanical Engineers. Although he had introduced a new type of regulator
(the L.N.W.R. 'double-beat' regulator) in 1850,
Ramsbottom's first major invention was the split piston ring. This
was astonishingly successful and was adopted throughout the world. The problem
of establishing a reliable and long-lasting steamtight fit between the piston
and the cylinder wall had hitherto been unresolved. Ramsbottom's solution
was to cut circumferential grooves in the piston, into which were fitted
narrow cast-iron split rings. The rings were split to enable them to be opened
out when being fitted to the piston. They had to be held in the closed position
as the piston was reinserted in the cylinder, after which their natural
elasticity held them tight against the cylinder wall, their natural diameter
being one tenth greater than the piston. Several rings were fitted to a piston,
in order to cope with any slight irregularities in different parts of the
cylinder. On trial, Ramsbottom found that his rings could do over three thousand
miles before renewal. Moreover, with these rings the weight of the piston
could be halved.
In 1856 Ramsbottom introduced his sight-feed lubricator, a boon to
LNWR. enginemen, and the safety valve still known throughout the world as
the Ramsbottom valve. The latter consisted of two parallel pipes which projected
vertically from the top of the boiler and, between them, a coiled spring
which pulled down a beam on to the two valves at the top of the pipes. These
valves lifted equally and were so well balanced that when blowing-off pressure
was reached in the boiler the initial reaction of the valves was to vibrate,
producing a recognizable hum.
In 1857 Ramsbottom was appointed L.N.W. locomotive superintendent
at Crewe. In 1859 he appointed Webb as his chief draughtsman, and it was
Webb who was responsible for most of the design work on Ramsbottom's locomotives.
Ramsbottom realized that a 2-4-0 passenger and 0-6-0 freight locomotive could
handle the bulk of the Railway's traffic, and built large numbers of these
types, which continued to be built, with alterations, by his successor Webb.
It was these basic 2-4-0 and 0-6-0 types that were still doing much of the
work in Edwardian times, Webb's later designs having proved so unsatisfactory.
Ramsbottom's standard freight machine (class DX) was produced in numbers
very large by contemporary standards; 943 units were built, and Webb based
his own 0-6-0 on this design. In general, Ramsbottom did not believe in building
engines large enough to handle the biggest loads likely to be encountered.
He preferred to design for the average task, with the result that his locomotives
were often worked much harder than on other lines. This set up something
of a tradition, subsequent LNWR locomotives being liable to severe 'thrashing'
by their drivers, yet designed to stand up well to such treatment. His
locomotives, while setting a tradition, themselves owed much to the tradition
of their predecessors; the 'L.N.W.R. look' had already been established and
the simplicity and exterior balance of Ramsbottom's designs did nothing to
detract from it. However, he did spoil the appearance of his machines by
his fondness for crazy fretwork; the chimney caps of his locomotives had
pieces cut out of them for the sake of what Ramsbottom called decoration.
The pieces which he cut out of his driving wheel splashers were less hideous,
and were sometimes appreciated by enginemen looking for a place to direct
their oil-cans. In common with most, but not all, of his contemporaries he
offered little comfort to his enginemen. The very successful class of 0-6-0
saddle tank that he designed for yard work had screw reverse: for most purposes
this was superior to the conventional lever reverse but, because it needed
more time to operate, it was quite unsuited for locomotives whose main work
was stopping, starting, and reversing. Again, Ramsbottom refused to provide
his enginemen with a roof over their heads at a time when other designers
had accepted the possibility that wet men might not work so well as dry men.
The truth is that Ramsbottom was a hard man in a hard age. Indeed, his
predecessor Trevithick had been pensioned off precisely because he was too
kind-hearted. It is likely that Ramsbottom bears the responsibility for the
autocratic and repressive tradition which established itself at Crewe in
the last decades of the century.
In many ways Ramsbottom's most spectacular invention was the water
trough. He liked small and rather flimsy tenders, so when he was faced with
an acceleration of the Irish Mail, which was to run non-stop between Chester
and Holyhead ( eighty-five miles) in 125 minutes, the idea of a device to
pick up water at speed had an obvious attraction. He decided that a long
track pan between the rails, with the water regulated to maintain a 5in.
depth, would be the best solution. A scoop lowered from the tender would
dip 2in. below the water surface, leaving a 3in. clearance for contingencies
(like stone ballast in the trough or weak springing on the tender). Ramsbottom
estimated that at 15 m.p.h. the scoop would lift the water 7ft 6in., and
on the first trial, in which the vertical pipe from the scoop into the water
tank ended 7ft 6in. above water level, he had the satisfaction of noting
that at 15 m.p.h. the water was propelled to the very top of the pipe, and
stayed there, without overflowing into the tender tank. These tests showed
that 40 m.p.h. was the best speed for pick-up, 1,150 gallons being taken;
faster and slower speeds resulted in a smaller intake. In order that the
engine crew might maintain the optimum speed over the quarter-mile trough
which he had laid at Conway in North Wales, he fitted a locomotive speedometer
(or 'Velocimeter' , as he called it), that he had earlier devised. This consisted
of oil inside a glass tube, mounted vertically. The tube was rotated by a
cord actuated from the rear axle. As the axle rotated faster, so did the
tube, causing the top surface of the oil to become more and more concave.
A scale was engraved alongside the tube, by which the bottom of the concave
surface marked the speed in m.p.h.
Most of Ramsbottom's period as top man at Crewe was devoted to improving
the organization of the works. He introduced strict standardization of parts
and of gauges. A Bessemer, and later a Siemens-Marhn, steel plant was introduced,
and an 18in. gauge steam railway linked the various parts of the works. Among
other innovations were cast iron locomotive wheels with H-section spokes,
much used on successive generations of LNW. freight locomotives, a horizontal
steam hammer, and various improved tools. He retired in 1871 at the age of
fifty-seven, in the belief that his health was failing. In fact he lived
another quarter-century, during which he became a director of Beyer, Peacock
and of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. He did much of the planning
in connection with the latter company's new locomotive works in Horwich.
His two sons reached high positions in Beyer, Peacock. It has already
been remarked that Ramsbottom was virtually the last of the great British
locomotive engineers, because after him the lack of academic training began
to hold back men who might otherwise have made great contributions. There
is a lot which can be said against the British tradition of training engineers
on the job. Years of rather boring 'experience' on the shop floor must have
driven many bright young men away from the railway service, and dulled the
brilliance of those who slogged it out. Lack of academic training, other
than attendance at night courses at the end of a hard day's work, must have
meant that good ideas lacked the theoretical underpinning that could have
ensured their success. On the other hand, it is also true that the better
British locomotive designers, because of their type of training, were excellent
organizers of production. In this sense Ramsbottom is again something of
a landmark. His inventions were almost entirely devised before he became
locomotive superintendent, and after coming to the top position his most
important work was not design and invention but production and administration.
In this he resembled most chief mechanical engineers, and for this work the
traditional non-academic training of British engineers was probably the most
advantageous.
In 1868 Sir Cusack Roney wrote respecting Mr. Ramsbottom
(cited Rly Mag., 1899, 5,
232)
"At the head of the mighty establishments at Crewe. . . . is one man who,
if he had been in Egypt, with works not a quarter the size and not half so
ably carried out, would have been at least a Bey, or more probably a Pacha;
in Austria a Count of the Holy Empire; in any other country in the world,
except England, with crosses and decorations, the ribbons of which would
easily make a charming bonnet of existing dimensions. But in England, the
earnest, persevering, never tiring JOHN RAMSOTTOM is – John
Ramsbottom."
Rogers (biography of Chapelon): John Ramsbottom of the London & North Western Railway was one of the greatest locomotive engineers of his day. His DX class 0-6-0 goods engines, which were built from 1858 to 1872, numbered more than any other steam locomotive class in British history. The DX was an extremely light engine which could run anywhere on the system and it had the screw reversing gear which Ramsbottom was the first engineer to use. He produced a noteworthy class of 2-4-0 express locomotive which as continued and modified by his successor Webb made the fastest running in the railway races from London to Aberdeen in 1895. Because, at the time these engines first appeared in 1866 many engineers held that only engines with single driving wheels were suitable for fast running, it is likely that Ramsbottom had discovered that a good steam circuit was of greater importance.
Carpenter, George W. biography
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
Pennie, Robin. John Ramsbottom:
a Victorian engineering giant. Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society,
2007. 96pp
Proceedings of the Instn Mech. Engrs. 1897,
52. 236-41 Obituary.
Min. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs, 1896/97, 129, 382. Obituary
H.A.V. Bulleid, The Aspinall
Era.
R.S. McNaught. The influence of John
Ramsbottom. Rly Wld, 1957,
18, 97-103.
Very brief biography: mainly his inventions: double-beat regulator,
split piston rings, water troughs and associated pick-up mechanism (and diversion
to note fishes in water troughs), and safety valves. Also 2-2-2s named after
Ramsbottom's daughters Edith and Eleanor and Whale transferred
the names to Precursor class
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's
encyclopedia
Talbot, Edward An illustrated history
of LNWR engines. 1985.
W. A. Tuplin, North Western Steam (1963);
Hambleton, F.C.John Ramsbottom: the father of the modern
locomotive. 1937.
Ottley 2863: notes that partly a reprint of material in J. Stephenson
Loco. Soc., 1937, February. Only 30 pp..
John Ramsbottom. Locomotive Carr. Wagon
Rev.,1941, 47, 143-7; 178-82.
Supplement to earlier work??
Nature of Ramsbottom household (including 6 children - one aged two
- the great man was 66) in Alderley Edge from 1881
Census: Backtrack 14,
637.
On an improved locomotive boiler.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1849, 1, 1-11 (25 July)
Description of an improved locomotive boiler, in which it was sought
to obtain by means of a separate steam-chamber a larger flue area and larger
heating surface, with less relative bulk and weight, and with great simplicity
of construction.
Description of an improved coking crane for supplying locomotive engines.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1853, 4, 122-5.
A device to assist the loading of tenders with coke.
On an improved piston. Proc. Instn.
Mech. Engrs., 1854, 5, 70-4.
Steam leakage had been a problem and Ramsbottom devised a means for
sealing the piston against the cylinder wall without increasing friction.
Ramsbottom's arrangement comprised a piston with three grooves. Packing rings
of brass, steel or iron could be inserted into the grooves, but the important
aspect was that the rings had to be made such that they would spring outwards
by a small amount. It was that spring which caused them to press against
the cylinder wall and so effectively seal the piston. Over the intervening
years nothing better has been found; although several variations have been
developed, they are still fundamentally Ramsbottom rings. By the time he
presented the paper, the first pistons as described had been at work for
16 months without any trouble and 15 other locomotives had been similarly
fitted. Ramsbottom considered that a set of rings would last for 3,000 to
4,000 miles.
On the construction of packing rings for pistons.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1855, 6, 206-08.
The writer had invented a a metallic piston, as described in
Proceedings 1854,
5, 70), where the packing is forced against the working surface
of the cylinder by its own elasticity, and owing to its being comparatively
slender in cross section, had to be left about 10% larger in diameter than
the block of the piston, in order to give the requisite pressure for preventing
the passage of steam. It was found, that when such packing was made of a
circular figure before being compressed, it was invariably worn more rapidly
at the joint, and at the part opposite. It is very natural that this should
he the case, and it has been the practice with many engineers, when using
packing rings which are pmssed against the cylinder by their own elasticity
alone, to make the part opposite the joint, where there is clearly the most
strain, stronger than any other, each half being tapered off to the joint
; although the writer is not aware that this has been done by any positive
rule.
It was taken for granted that the unequal wear above referred to was owing
to the pressure against the cylinder being unequal in different parts of
the ring, and as the packing rings used by the writer are made of wire or
drawn rods, and consequently uniform in thickness, it was found impracticable
to ensure this equable pressure by tapering the ring, but as this uniform
pressure can be obtained by making the packing ring truly circular in figure,
but unequal in thickness it oocmred to the writer, inasmuch as the rings
which he employs are bent and not turned, that the same elld might be gained,
by conversely making the ring equal in strength of material but unequal in
figure or that a ring might be made of such a shape, that although uniform
in cross section, it would press equaly against the working surface of the
cylinder all round.
On an improved safety valve. Proc.
Instn. Mech. Engrs., 1856, 7, 37-47..
The tamper-free duplex safety valve. It was not unknown for locomotive
drivers to load their safety valves in order to obtain increased boiler pressure
so that they could make up lost time. Such practice was dangerous and a number
of boiler explosions were attributed to it. Ramsbottom's safety valve design
prevented any loading which would result in an increase of boiler pressure,
but did allow pressure to be released by means of a lever which had contact
with both valves.
Description of a method of supplying water to locomotive tenders whilst running.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1861, 12, 43-50. Disc.: 50-2. Plates 10-13.
The length of trough laid on the Chester and Holyhead Railway near
Conway was 441 yards in the level. The trough contained water 5 in deep,
and the scoop dipped 2 in. into the water, leaving a clearance of 3 in. at
the bottom of the trough for any deposit of ashes or stones. The maximum
amount of water was raised at a speed of about 35 miles/hour, when the quantity
raised amounts to as much as the above theoretical total.
On the improved traversing cranes
at Crewe Locomotive Works. Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs., 1864, 15,
44-58.
On the improved traversing cranes at Crewe Locomotive Works. 44-58.
The traversing cranes were employed in the locomotive shops of the London
and North Western Railway at Crewe, where they were designed and erected
by Ramsbottom. They were seen in action by the members during their visit
to the Crewe works in the excursion at the Liverpool meeting of the Institution
in summer 1863. From the interest manifested in them on that occasion and
the numerous enquiries that have since been made respecting them, the writer
has thought that ft description of the principle and construction of these
cranes may be acceptable to the members. There were seven of these cranes
in use at the Crewe works, which had been working successfully for some time,
the first having now been three years in constant work. They were driven
by power and are so constructed as to be driven by a light endless cord of
small diameter, extending throughout the entire length of the shop traversed
by the crane. This cord is driven at a very high speed, nearly 60 miles an
hour; in consequence of which only a very light driving pressure is required
on the shifting gear of the crane. The driving cord is kept in uniform tension
by the action of a constant weight ; and is arranged so as to allow of the
cranes working and traversing in every direction without sensibly affecting
the length of the cord. The cranes were of two classes: Longitudinal Overhead
Traversers, of which there were two pairs in the engine repairing shop, lifting
loads up to 25 tons; and Traversing Jib Cranes, of which there was one pair
in the wheel shop, lifting 4 tons. The cranes were all driven by endless
cords running along the top of the shops close to the roof tie-beams. The
overhead traversers were worked in each case by a man seated on a platform
attached to the crab and moving with it ; and the jib cranes by a man standing
below at the foot of the crane and walking along with it when traversing:
each man having control over all the lifting, lowering, and traversing movements,
by a set of handles.
Description of an improved reversing rolling mill.
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs,
1864, 17, 115-29 + Plates 34-42.
The improved reversing rolling mill had been in operation for seven
months at the Steel Works of the London and North Western Railway at Crewe.
The special point in the arrangement was that the rolls were driven direct
by the engine, without the intervention of a flywheel; and the engine and
rolls together were reversed each time that a heat is passed through, the
rolling being alternately in opposite directions. The idea of reversing a
train of rolls by reversing the engine at each passage of the heat through
the rolls was first suggested by Nasmyth, but had never to the writer’s
knowledge been carried out before,
On an improved mode of manufacture of steel tyres.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1866, 17, 186-98
The object was to reduce the waste of material in the process to so
small an amount as to leave its effect insignificant upon the cost of production,
and upon the calculation of the weight of ingot required for producing a
tyre of given dimensions. Another object was to reduce the time of manufacture,
thereby reducing the proportionate cost of plant by turning out more work
in the same time
Description of a 30-ton horizontal duplex hammer.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1867, 18, 218-31.
The hammer was designed to forge large masses of steel in the Bessemer
Steel Works of the London and North Western Railway at Crewe. The first intention
was to put down a 30-ton vertical hammer of the ordinary kind; but as this
would have reqiured a 300 ton anvil, the practical difficulty and cost of
dealing with so large a mass suggested that the prinoiple of action and reaction
might afford a solution of the problem. Hence arose the conception of two
hammers acting in opposite directions; and as a matter of convenience it
seemed better to lay them on their side and cause them to operate horizontally
upon a bloom placed between them. As this idea grew into form it appeared
to present advantages both in economy and convenience sufficiently important
to warrant the construction of an experimental hammer of 10 tons. This when
brought into operation proved to possess the advantages expected; and in
consequence the writer designed and laid down the 30-ton hammer.
Mechanical ventilation of Liverpool passenger tunnel.
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs.,
1871, 22, 22-35. ; 66-74; 184-99 + Plates 1-6; 17.
The LNWR left Liverpool via a 2035 yard Tunnel, of mean sectional
area of 430 feet2, on an average gradient of 1 in 97. During the
thirty-three years that had elapsed since opening this portion of line in
1837 traffic through the tunnel was worked by endless rope and a pair of
winding engines at the top of the incline. All trains coming up the tunnel
from the Liverpool station were attached to the rope and hauled up by the
winding engines; trains in the reverse direction were controlled by the addition
of very heavy brake-trucks. Delays occurred through stopping every up train
at each mouth of the tunnel, to attach and detach the rope. This caused problems
during the excursion season, when trains leaving Liverpool were often so
heavily loaded that they were divided into two portions, each portion being
hauled up the tunnel separately, and the train re-united at the top of the
incline. These delays, together with the increasing requirements of the ordinary
traffic, at length induced the directors to determine to remove the rope
and winding engines, and to work the tunnel by locomotives in the ordinary
manner; but the employment of coal-burning locomotives in a close tunnel
nearly It mile long, intimately connected at each end with passenger stations
of great importance, was of cotirse impracticable without a thorough and
constant artificial ventilation. .
Contributions to other's papers
Siemens, C. William. On Le
Chatelier's plan of using counter-pressure steam as a break [sic] in locomotive
engines. Proc. Instn Mech Engrs., 1870, 21, 21-36. Disc.: 51-4
+ Plates 1-5.
Counter-pressure steam brake:. On the Tredegar and Abergavenny line
in South Wales there was a descent of 1000 feet within a distance of only
8½; miles, giving a mean gradient of 1 in 45, and the difficulty of
taking the trains down that part of the line was found to be practically
even greater than getting them up; and in this case he was looking to the
application of the counter-pressure working for surmounting to a great extent
the difliculty at present experienced. In applying the counter-pressure steam
for ordinary stoppages at stations, the quantity of injection water required
to be turned on would of course diminish as the speed became reduced; and
he wm prepared therefore to anticipate some difliculty in this application
of the plan, as the regulation of the jet would probably require a, nicety
of adjustment that waa scarcely to be expected from the ordinary class of
engine drivers. Another application mentioned in the paper of the
counter-pressure working was for shunting at stations, the regulator being
kept open the whole time, and the shunting being effected entirely by the
reversing lever ; and in order to carry this plan out, it was necessary not
only that the screw reversing gear should be employed, but also that the
engine should be fitted with good balanced slide-valves ; otherwise it was
certain the men would still continue to shut off the steam before reversing,
in order to render the reversing easier. In the experiments on the Buxton
line it had been mentioned that the steam had been shut off in order to reverse
the engine, and it was-clear the regulator had been used largely in the trials;
and the men would not be got to desist from employing it extensively until
the reversing was rendered as easy with the steam full on as with it shut
off, which it appeared to him could not be readily accomplished.
In regard to the excess of pressure shown above the boiler pressure in the
counter-pressure diagram that was exhibited from the experiments on the South
Western Railway, the explanation which had been offered, viewing the column
of steam in the steam pipe from the regulator to the cylinders as performing
the part of a ram, appeared to him to be corroborated by the circumstance
of the engine being an outside-cylinder one with separate steam-chests and
forked steam-pipe, increasing considerably the distance from the regulator
to either cylinder. In an inside-cylinder engine, where the total length
of the steam-pipe would be less, and where also the action of one piston
might perhaps interfere somewhat with that of the other in forcing the steam
back into the boiler, in consequence of the . two cylinders having only a
single steam-chest common to them both, it was probable the excess of
counter-pressure might not be quite so great as in the diagram shown. Another
reason that would account for the high pressure observed in the cylinder
was the greater density of the counter-pressure vapour which had to be forced
back by the piston into the boiler if it was not boiler steam alone, but
a wet vapour largely charged with water from the water jet, which would therefore
move more sluggishly through the passages to the boiler. That the momentum
of the boiler steam rushing into the cavity of the cylinder would be great
enough to produce a considerable rise of pressure in the cylinder above the
boiler pressure appeared to him a reasonable supposition; and he remembered
hearing a somewhat analogous circumstance, that in gunnery it was it well-known
fact that when a charge was not rammed home the strain upon the gun in firing
was more severe, producing a greater expansion at the breech.
Patents (non-railway inventions shown with green numbers: following Carpenter's ODNB biography: Ramsbottom's screw reverse appears to be missing). Earlier versions of this web page listed patents which are not in Pennie and were by other "John Ramsbottoms": following contact from Robin Pennie these have been deleted.
6644/1834: 12 July 1834: Construction of
power looms for weaving cotton and other fabrics materials into cloth or
other fabrics. (also Woodcroft)
6975/1836: 6 January 1836: Machinery for
roving, spinning and doubling cotton and other fabric substances.
(also Woodcroft)
12,384/1848: 21 December 1848: Running wheels and turntables; application
to shfts or axles driven by steam or other power.
(also Woodcroft who gives title as
Rail-way wheels and turn-tables)
767/1852. [packing ring for cylinders]
via Dickinson
309/1854: 9 February 1854: Hoist for raising and lowering railway
rolling stock and other articles.
408/1854: 21 February 1854: Welding.
322/1855: 12 February 1855: Construction of certain metallic
pistons.
451/1855: 1 March 1855: Steam-engines: obtaining motive power more
economically.
1299/1856: 7 June 1855: Safety valves, feeding apparatus for
steam-boilers.
1047/1857 Wrought iron rail chair
1527/1860: 23 June 1860: Supplying the tenders or tanks of locomotive
engines with water.
2460/1860: 10 October 1860: An improved mode of lubricating the pistons
and valves of steam-engines and other machines activated by steam.
White, John H. Some notes
on early railway lubrication Trans Newcomen Soc., 2004, 74,
293-307 states that there is an ealier British Patent
of 27 November 1858, but Peter Skellon's
Steam locomotive lubrication (p. 57) claims that there is no earlier
Patent. Displacement or hydrostatic lubricator.
924/1863: 13 April 1863: Machinery for hammering, rolling and shaping
metals.
48/1864: 7 January 1864: Improved machinery and apparatus to be employed
in, and improved modes of manufacturing hoops, rails and other articles of
cast steel.
3073/1864: 12 December 1864: Improvements in the manufacture of steel
and iron, and in the apparatus employed therein.
89/1865: 11 January 1865: Improvements in steam hammers and in appartus
employed in combination with steam hammers.
375/1865: 10 February 1865: Machinery for rolling and hammering iron
and other metals.
736/1865: 16 March 1865: Machinery for rolling and shaping metals.
1425/1865: 25 May 1865: Machinery employed in the manufacture of hoops
and tyres.
1975/1865: 31 July 1865: Improvements in the manufacture of hoops
and tyres and on the machinery employed therin.
342/1867: 7 February 1867 Machinery and apparatus for supporting,
moving and forging heavy masses of metal.
386/1867: 12 February 1867 Machinery for transferring engines, carriages
and waggons from one line of rails to another.
2956/1868: 26 September 1868: Apparatus for communicating between
the passengers, guard and engine driver of a railway train.
820/1869: 18 March 1869 An improved mode of ventilating railway tunnels
1060/1880: 11 March 1880: Working expansion valves of engines
John Goodfellow Ramsbottom
Born at Crewe in 1859, being a son of John Ramsbottom, President of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1870-71. He was educated at the
Manchester Grammar School and Owens College, and served an apprenticeship
with Beyer, Peacock and Co., Gorton. After filling various appointments at
the Works, he became Secretary of the Company until 1898, when he retired.
After that date he lived in London for a short time, and then went to the
United States, where he died on 26th August 1922.
Updated: 2014-10-06