John Blenkinsop (1783– 22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s, who designed the first practical railway locomotive.

He was born in Felling, County Durham, the son of a stonemason and was apprenticed to his cousin, Thomas Barnes, a Northumberland coal viewer. From 1808 he became agent to Charles John Brandling

Brandling of Newcastle

The Brandlings of Newcastle were a wealthy family of merchants and land and coal owners in Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumberland.-Early Brandlings:...

, who owned collieries on his Middleton estate near Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and whose family came from Felling. Blenkinsop lived at Middleton Hall on Town Street, Middleton, built in the 18th century as the Brandling's Middleton home (they chose to live mainly in their Durham home) until his death.

Blenkinsop and the Middleton Railway

In 1758 the Brandlings had built a wooden wagonway

Wagonway

Wagonways consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam powered railways. The terms "plateway", "tramway" and in someplaces, "dramway" are also found.- Early developments :...

 to carry coal into Leeds, using horse-drawn vehicle

Horse-drawn vehicle

A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...

s, now known as the Middleton Railway

Middleton Railway

The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd...

. Not all the land traversed by the wagonway belonged to Brandling, and it was the first railway to be authorised by Act of Parliament

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

, since this would give him power to obtain wayleave

Right-of-way (railroad)

A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...

.

In the early nineteenth century, attempts were being made to employ steam power for haulage

Haulage

Haulage may refer to:* The business of being a haulier or hauler , also called haulage contractor, common carrier, contract carrier, or private carrier, in other words of transporting goods by road or rail for other companies or one's own company.* The horizontal transport of ore, coal, supplies,...

. Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall. His most significant success was the high pressure steam engine and he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive...

 of Cornwall had experimented with various models of steam locomotive, and in 1805 his work had culminated in an engine for the Wylam

Wylam

 Wylam is a small village about west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located in the county of Northumberland.It is famous for the being the birthplace of George Stephenson, one of the early rail pioneers. George Stephenson's Birthplace is his cottage that can be found on the north bank of the...

 Colliery. The cast-iron plated wood rails were unable to take the engine's heavy weight, however, and the initial attempt to convert to steam locomotion at Wylam was abandoned. Work on the development of locomotive power continued nonetheless. A shortage of horses and fodder brought about by the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 had made steam traction a more attractive proposition and encouraged further development. Moreover, edge rails, made entirely of iron, laid at Middleton Railway around 1807, were stronger.

While many people, such as William Hedley

William Hedley

William Hedley was one of the leading industrial engineers of the early 19th century, and was very instrumental in several major innovations in early railway development...

, felt that adhesion should be adequate with a locomotive weighing around five tons, Blenkinsop was less sanguine. In 1811 he patented (No 3431), a rack and pinion

Rack and pinion

A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a pair of gears which convert rotational motion into linear motion. A circular gear called "the pinion" engages teeth on a linear "gear" bar called "the rack"; rotational motion applied to the pinion causes the rack to move, thereby...

 system for a locomotive which would be designed and built by Matthew Murray

Matthew Murray

Matthew Murray was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca in 1812...

 of Fenton, Murray and Wood in Holbeck

Holbeck

Holbeck is a district in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The district begins on the southern edge of the Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 Leeds postcode area. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since...

.

The general opinion of the time was that a locomotive would draw up to four times its weight by adhesion alone (assuming good conditions), but Blenkinsop wanted more, and his engine, weighing five tons, regularly hauled a payload of ninety tons. The first were Prince Regent and Salamanca

The Salamanca

Salamanca was the first commercially successful steam locomotive, built in 1812 by Matthew Murray of Holbeck, for the edge railed Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds. It was the first to have two cylinders...

, built in 1812, then Willington (1813) and Marquis Wellington (1814). Similar locomotives were built for collieries at Orrell near Wigan

Wigan

Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...

 by Robert Daglish

Robert Daglish

Robert Daglish was an English steam engineer.Robert Daglish was born in Northumberland but by 1804 had moved to Wigan, Lancashire as engineer and manager of the Haigh Ironworks of the Earl of Balcarres...

 under license from Blenkinsop, and at Newcastle-upon-Tyne after Willington was sold to Kenton and Coxlodge Colliery. A locomotive of this pattern was also made by the Royal Iron Foundry in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. The locomotives had the first double-acting cylinders and, unlike the Trevithick

Trevithick

Trevithick is a surname, and may refer to:* Francis Trevithick , one of the first locomotive engineers of the London and North Western Railway* Paul Trevithick , American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur...

 pattern, no flywheel. The cylinders drove a geared wheel which engaged with the rack

Rack railway

A rack-and-pinion railway is a railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail...

 beside one rail. One of the geared locomotives was described as having two 8"x20" cylinders, driving the wheels through cranks. The piston crossheads worked in guides, rather than being controlled by parallel motion like the majority of early locomotives. The engines saw about twenty years of service.

The design was superseded when rolled iron

Wrought iron

thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...

 rail, which could bear the heavier adhesion locomotives, was introduced in 1820. This was quickly adopted by George Stephenson

George Stephenson

George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...

 and others.
In addition to managing the Middleton Collieries, in the 1820s John Blenkinsop was the consulting engineer for Sir John Lister Kaye of Denby Grange, owner of Caphouse Colliery

Caphouse Colliery

Caphouse Colliery, originally known as Overton Colliery, was a coal mine in Overton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was situated on the Denby Grange estate owned by the Lister Kaye family, and was worked from the 18th century until 1985...

. Blenkinsop died of tuberculosis in Leeds in 1831, and is buried at Rothwell

Rothwell, West Yorkshire

Rothwell is a market town on the River Dolphin in the south east of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, situated between Oulton to the east, Belle Isle to the west, Woodlesford to the north east and Robin Hood to the south west. Swillington, Methley and Kippax are located...

 Parish Church.

Further reading

• Chrimes, Mike (2002) Blenkinsop, John in A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers
  A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers
  A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland discusses the lives of the people who were concerned with building harbours and lighthouses, undertook fen drainage and improved river navigations, built canals, roads, bridges and early railways, and provided water supply...
  
  , p 62.
• Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
• John Blenkinsop and the cogwheel railway Cotton Times Understanding the Industrial Revolution