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Updated: April 30, 2025
It began work on the 25th July 1814, went up a gradient of one in 450, and took eight waggons with 30 tons at four miles an hour. It was by far the most successful engine that had yet been made. The next and most valuable improvement of Stephenson was the blast-pipe by its means the slow combustion of the fire was at once overcome, and steam obtained to any amount.
No tall cylindrical or prismatic chimney vomited out smoke, after being fed from the mine itself; no blast-pipe was puffing out its white vapor. The ground, formerly black with coal dust, had a bright look, to which James Starr's eyes were not accustomed. When the engineer stood still, Harry Ford stopped also. The young miner waited in silence.
The boiler was of cast-iron, with a one-cylinder engine, spur gear and a fly-wheel on one side. He sent the waste steam into the chimney, and by this means was very nearly arriving at the blast-pipe, afterwards the great and important discovery of George Stephenson.
In the “Planet” engine, delivered upon the line immediately subsequent to the public opening, all the improvements which had up to that time been contrived by him and his son were introduced in combination—the blast-pipe, the tubular boiler, horizontal cylinders inside the smoke-box, the cranked axle, and the fire-box firmly fixed to the boiler.
Thus the invention of the blast-pipe is claimed for Trevithick, George Stephenson, Goldsworthy Gurney, and Timothy Hackworth; that of the tubular boiler by Seguin, Stevens, Booth, and W. H. James; that of the link-motion by John Gray, Hugh Williams, and Robert Stephenson. Indeed many inventions appear to be coincident.
Doubts were, however, expressed whether the greater draught secured by the contraction of the blast-pipe was not counterbalanced in some degree by the negative pressure upon the piston.
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