Timothy Hackworth

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Image:Hackworth.jpg Timothy Hackworth (December 22 1786 – July 7 1850) was a steam locomotive mechanical engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and worked with George Stephenson on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

Born in Wylam in 1786, Hackworth worked with William Hedley at Wylam Colliery in the early 1800s and assisted in the production of Puffing Billy, the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive. This experience led to his employment by George Stephenson, another notable former Wylam resident. With Stephenson, Hackworth helped develop Locomotion, a moderately successful engine that Hackworth adopted as a pet project. However, the Locomotion was soon replaced by the Sans Pareil, which took part in the Rainhill Trials in 1829. Although Hackworth's locomotive was heavy, it was allowed to take part, but failed when a cylinder cracked. The engine was however subsequently used on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and can still be seen in action at the Timothy Hackworth Museum.

His design in 1827 for the Royal George used a steam blastpipe in the chimney to draw the fire, and he is usually acknowledged as the inventor of this concept. However, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney claimed prior art, having used a similar steam blast as early as 1822. The steam blast was copied by Stephenson for his locomotive, the Rocket. According to another source (Brown, 1871), Stephenson used the steam blast already before 1815. It had been common practice to exhaust the steam into the chimney to minimise noise. Recent letters acquired by the National Railway Museum would appear to confirm Hackworth as the inventor. It may be he was to first to utilise the steam to draw the fire.

He also built, at Shildon in 1836, the first locomotive to run in Russia for the St Petersburg railway and in 1837 the Samson for the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, one of the first engines to run in Canada.

One of his 1833 apprentices, Daniel Adamson, later further developed his boiler designs becoming a successful manufacturer (and influential in the inception of the Manchester Ship Canal).

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