Grace's Guide

Walter Hancock

From GracesGuide

Walter Hancock (1799-1852) of High Road, Stratford, Essex was a builder of steam powered road vehicles.

Contents 1 General 2 Enterprise 3 Extract by William Fletcher 4 See Also 5 Sources of Information

General

See Hancock Family

1799 June 16th. Born at Marlborough, Wiltshire the sixth son of James Hancock, a timber merchant and cabinet-maker at Marlborough, Wiltshire

Served an apprenticeship to a watchmaker and jeweller in London

1824 Invented a steam engine in which the ordinary cylinder and piston were replaced by two flexible bags, consisting of several layers of canvas bonded with a rubber solution, and alternately filled with steam

Between 1824 and 1836, Hancock constructed at his Stratford works in East London a number of steam road vehicles, one of these being a three-wheeled four-seater car.

In 1827 Hancock also patented a steam boiler that would split rather than blow so that the passengers being carried on his steam vehicles would be able to travel in safety.

1829 June. Walter Hancock of Bow has invented a steam carriage and it travels regularly from Fulham to Brompton and carries eight passengers at twelve miles per hour. ^[1]

In 1829 he built a small ten-seater bus called the Infant, with which in 1831 he began a regular service between Stratford and London. It was powered by an oscillating engine carried on an outrigger behind the back axle. The boiler was vertical and made up of a series of narrow parallel water chambers. A fire was situated beneath the boiler and the fire was fanned by bellows worked by the engine. There was a hopper to feed in the coke.

1831 "The committee have also examined Messers. Summers and Ogle, Mr. Hancock and Mr. Stone whose steam carriages have been in daily use for some months past on common roads . . .Mr. Hancock reckons that with his carriage he could keep up a speed of ten miles per hour, without injury to his machine" ^[2]

1831 February. Walter Hancock runs a steam carriage from Stratford to Whitechapel called the 'Infant'. He has been working on it for the past three years. The inventor is his brother. ^[3]

This vehicle was made famous by its later revenue-earning journeys from London to Brighton, which were a British first, and also demonstrated its usability by successfully ascending a frozen slope of 5 degrees where horse-drawn coaches were struggling. The vehicle was ultimately lost in an accident when the driver blocked the safety valve in order to increase the starting pressure and the boiler exploded.

1832 July. Demonstrates his new steam carriage to carry eighteen passengers. (Long detail of the construction included). ^{[4] [5]}

On the 31st of October, 1832, the Infant took an experimental trip to Brighton, which was documented in Mr. Alexander Garden's "Journal of Elemental Locomotion".

1832 November. Report of his journey from London to Brighton in the 'Infant'. ^[6]

1832 December. Richard Outridge, an engineer in his employment dies when a boiler explodes after he wired down the safety valve. Mentions George Bish the foreman for Hancock. ^[7]

1833 April Trials of a new steam carriage at Paddington. It left from the yard of the Patent Steam Coach Co, Charles Street, City Road. ^[8]

On 22nd April 1833 Hancock’s steam omnibus the Enterprise (built for the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Co) began a regular service between London Wall and Paddington via Islington. It was the first regular steam carriage service, and was the first mechanically propelled vehicle specially designed for omnibus work to be operated. The engine worked on a crank and iron chains applied the power to the back wheels.

The service was brought to an end due to a dispute between Hancock and the operators, and Hancock himself built and operated further steam buses between 1833 and 1840.

In 1833 he introduced the Autopsy a smaller vehicle and the Era an 18-seater.

1833 September. After six years of experimentation he offers his steam carriages to the public ^[9]

1834 August. Report of steam carriage run from Pentonville to Finsbury Square ^[10]

In 1836 he introduced the 22-seat Automaton. This was a 22-seater powered by a two-cylinder engine with a bore of 9in. and a stroke of 12in and rated at 24hp at 70 RPM. It proceeded to run over 700 journeys between London and Paddington, London and Islington, and Moorgate and Stratford, carrying over 12,000 passengers in total and regularly travelling at speeds in excess of 20 mph.

By 1840, however, the development of steam-powered road vehicles had lost impetus and the heavy road tolls imposed by the Turnpike Acts had turned inventors away from steam. Hancock was forced to give up the struggle, and the way was left clear for the operators of horse buses.

1840 Hancock continued working with steam and supplied a light engine (similar to his steam road coaches) to the Eastern Counties Railway. The boiler consisted of separate chambers which greatly reduced the risk of explosion.

1841 Living at Turnpike Road, Stratford (age 40), Engineer. With Elizabeth Hancock (age 5). ^[11]

1841 Article mentions Walter Hancock of the Steam Carriage Works, Stratford, Essex and his efforts to introduce steam carriages on the road. ^[12] 1843 Patent for cutting rubber into sheets, and for a method of preparing rubber solutions

1852 May 14th. Announcement of his death after an attack of Gout. Inventor of steam locomotives for common roads and lately involved with the Gutta Percha Manufactory at Stratford now carried on by his brother. ^[13]

Enterprise

Hancock's Enterprise steam bus had several features which were innovatory by contemporary standards. The engine was suspended on leaf springs along with the body of the vehicle, and the axle located with swinging arms as is still done today in the Ford Explorer, with power being transmitted to the axle using chain drive. The rear axle was also used to drive a centrifugal blower fan which was used to force air into the firebox.

The "Enterprise" required three operators in normal running. The driver sat at the front and was responsible for steering (via a steering wheel rather than a tiller) and controlling the speed via a regulator. A second operator occupied a small compartment to the rear of the vehicle between the boiler and the engine; this man was responsible for looking after the boiler's water level and selecting reverse gear when required. The final man stood on a platform at the rear and was responsible for maintaining the fire and braking, which was carried out by means of a large lever which acted directly on one of the rear wheels. Nothing is known about how these three people communicated.

Extract by William Fletcher

'Steam Locomotion on Common Roads' by William Fletcher. Published 1891.

Walter Hancock, of Stratford, London, was the most successful of all the steam carriage schemers, and to give anything like a detailed account of the many carriages built by him would occupy more time and space than is available; we must, therefore, be content to give a brief outline of his career during the twelve years that he devoted to the subject.

In 1824, Hancock invented a novel form of engine, which he thought was very suitable for steam carriages, because of its simplicity, lightness, and comparative cheapness. A regular reciprocating motion was obtained by the alternate filling and discharging of india-rubber receivers, and this motion was given a rotary form by a crank in the usual manner. A 4 h.p. engine of this design was employed at the inventor's manufactory at Stratford, and worked well.

Hancock also made a model steam carriage, and afterwards one on a larger scale; but only to discover, after many trials, that his engine was practically useless for steam carriage purposes.

In 1827, he invented his well known boiler, which tended more than anything else to make his steam carriages in after years so successful. This boiler consisted of a number of flat chambers 2in. wide, ranged side by side, with about fin. space between each chamber. The sides of these chambers were covered with bosses, arranged so that the bosses of one chamber touched the bosses of the next chamber, thus forming abutments, and at the same time increasing the heating surface; the whole boiler was braced together by strong bolts and stays. The steam pressure used was 100lb. per square inch. The boilers were 2ft. square, and 3ft. high. Being satisfied with his boiler, Hancock next determined to build a steam carriage, using an engine of the ordinary construction. The carriage is shown in Fig. 41; it was supported on three wheels, and was intended to carry four passengers. The propelling force was obtained from a pair of oscillating cylinders working the double cranked axle of the leading wheel, which was arranged to swivel for steering. This carriage was far from being satisfactory, and was subjected to numerous alterations; but in spite of its defects it ran many hundreds of miles in experimental trips, from the manufactory at Stratford, sometimes to Epping Forest, at other times to Paddington, and frequently to Whitechapel.

On one occasion it ran to Hounslow, and on another to Croydon. In every instance it accomplished the task assigned to it, and returned to Stratford on the same day on which it set out. Subsequently this carriage went from Stratford, through Pentonville, to Turnham Green, over Hammersmith Bridge, and thence to Fulham. In that neighbourhood it remained several days, and made a number of excursions in different directions, for the gratification of some of Hancock's friends, and others who had expressed a desire to witness its performance.

In 1831 Hancock commened running his steam coach "The Infant" regularly for hire between Stratford and London, see Fig. 42. Before it was placed on the station it was tried in every possible way. The possibility of a steam carriage ascending steep hills had been doubted by many, and to remove if possible all scepticism on the subject, Hancock fixed a day for taking his carriage up Pentonville Hill, which has a rise of one in eighteen to twenty, and invited a numerous party to witness the experiments. He says: "A severe frost succeeding a shower of sleet had completely glazed the road, so that horses could scarcely keep their footing. The trial was made therefore under the most unfavourable circumstances possible; so much so, that confident as the writer felt in the powers of his engine, his heart inclined to fail him. The carriage, however, did its duty nobly. Without the aid of propellers or any other such appendages (then thought necessary on a level road) the hill was ascended at considerable speed and the summit successfully attained, while his competitors with their horses were yet but a little way from the bottom of the hill."

Hancock's improved carriage was brought out during the latter part of 1832, in which the oscillating cylinders were abandoned, fixed cylinders taking their place. This carriage took a trip to Brighton and back, accompanied by Gordon and other scientific gentlemen, eleven in all. It ran at the rate of nine to fifteen miles an hour on the level road, and six miles an hour when ascending hills.

In 1833, the "Autopsy" and the "Enterprise" were built. The "Autopsy" ran for hire between Finsbury Square and Pentonville, and continued to do so daily, without accident or intermission, for nearly four weeks.

From August to November of 1834, Hancock ran the "Era" and the "Autopsy" for hire daily between the City, Moorgate, and Paddington, and during this period he carried nearly four thousand passengers, often running at a speed of twelve miles an hour.

Hancock was the only steam carriage proprietor who had ventured to run a locomotive along the crowded streets of London at the busiest periods of the day. These hard roads were a severe test for the wheels and the gearing. The motion of these carriages was easy; they made no noise, and produced no smoke, and did not frighten horses.

The "Era" was eventually shipped to Dublin, where it arrived safely in 1835, It ran through the principal streets and most crowded thoroughfares in Dublin with the most perfect success. On one occasion it ran three times round Stephen's Green at the rate of 18 miles an hour.

In May, 1836, Hancock put the whole of his carriages on the Paddington road, and ran them daily without any intermission for upwards of five months, during which time they traversed 4,200 miles, made 525 trips from the city to Islington and back, 143 to Paddington and back, and 44 to Stratford and back: and the number of times he passed through the City came to more than two hundred. For five weeks he ran a carriage twice a day to the Bank.

The following list of steam carriages built by Hancock, in the order of their construction, and the number of persons they were respectively calculated to accommodate, exclusive of the steersman, engineer, and fireman, will be of interest: —

• Experimental carriage, four outside;
• "Infant" (trunnion engines), ten outside;
• improved carriage (fixed engines) fourteen outside;
• "Era," Greenwich, sixteen inside, two out;
• "Enterprise," fourteen inside;
• "Autopsy," nine inside, five out;
• "Erin," eight inside, six out;
• German drag, six outside, rest in carriages drawn;
• "Automaton," twenty-two outside. The first time the " Automaton " was brought out upon the road it took a party to Romford and back at the rate of ten to twelve miles an hour. Young

says: "On one occasion it performed (when put to the top of its speed, and loaded with twenty full grown persons) a mile on the Bow road at the rate of twenty-one miles an hour!"

The Enterprise is represented by Fig. 43. It was built for the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Co, and commenced to run for hire under Mr. Hancock's personal superintendence between the city and Paddington for sixteen successive days, doing two or three journeys a day "to prove its capability of proceeding through crowded thoroughfares without inconvenience or liability to accident to the persons in the coach or others."

Mr. Hancock says, respecting these preliminary trips: "It is not intended to run this carriage more than about a week longer; partly because it was only intended as a demonstration of its efficiency, and partly because my own occupation will not admit of my personal attention to the steering, which I have hitherto performed myself, having no other person at present to whose guidance I could, with propriety, entrust it."

The Enterprise ran from Cottage Lane, City Road to Paddington, and from Paddington to London Wall, and back to Cottage Lane, nine or ten miles, in less than an hour, exclusive of stoppages, performing the trips in an exceedingly satisfactory manner, and the carriage was more under the control of the driver than the best driven horse coach ; it ascended Pentonville Hill with ease at six miles an hour.

This steam omnibus, of course, was opposed by the drivers of horse vehicles. We quote the following from one of the daily papers: "In watching, as I have done, the early operations of the new steam coach the Enterprise, on the Paddington Road, I have been pained, though not surprised, to see the malignant efforts of some of the drivers of the horse conveyances to impede and baffle the course of the new competitor. They must be taught not to endanger the lives of the passengers, who have entrusted themselves to their guidance, by a wanton courting of collision with a vehicle so vastly more weighty, more strong, and more powerful than their own frail vehicles, and feeble, staggering beasts of draught. One of these infatuated men, to-day, crossed about the path of the steam coach, palpably with a mischievous design, which was only rendered abortive by the vigilance and prompt action of Mr. Hancock."

The London and Paddington Steam Carriage Company behaved very shabbily to Hancock. He had built the carriage to their order, had run it for several weeks over the course to test its powers at his own expense. Mr. Redmund, the engineer for the company, was satisfied with its performance after it had been running a week, and wrote a flattering report to the directors and shareholders respecting it. After the Enterprise had been delivered to the company, Mr. Hancock expected to receive directions to proceed with two more carriages upon the same plan, as per contract entered into by the company. "Various pretexts were, however, resorted to for delay, which subsequent proceedings proved were merely employed by the engineer as feints to conceal a design which for dishonesty has seldom been exceeded."

During a delay which lasted for nearly six months, when a voluminous correspondence took place, Mr. Redmund had meanwhile taken the Enterprise to pieces, and was making a carriage of his own on the same lines. This we shall refer to in due course. Mr. Hancock at length caused the Enterprise to be put together and returned, and thus ended the unprofitable and unpleasant business.

We must briefly refer to the last and perhaps the best steam carriage built by Mr. Hancock in 1838, which is illustrated by Fig. 44. It will be seen from the illustration that the engine was of the vertical type, placed about the centre of the carriage. C is the cylinder; the crank shaft works in bearings fixed to each side plate, on which is keyed a chain pulley, while a similar pulley of larger diameter was fitted to the driving axle; a strong pitch chain communicated the motion from the crank shaft to the axle; the up and down motion of the axle, which was hung on springs, not interfering with this method of driving. The boiler was situated at the back of the con- veyance, the stoker's place being in the middle of the carriage. T represents a water tank and seat for two passengers. The steering arrangements are clearly shown by the illustration. The action of the little locomotive was most creditable to its builder.

In May, 1838, Mr. Hancock and two friends rode through the principal streets of the city in this steam carriage, caused it to run round the open space in front of the Guildhall, turn in any direction, run at any speed desired by its conductor, to the delight of a number of onlookers, after which Hancock threaded his way through the crowd of carts, omnibuses, cabs, and other vehicles in Cheapside, Leadenhall Street and other busy thoroughfares, stopped at the bank for a few minutes where Hancock alighted, leaving his friends in charge of the gig. One of the bank porters pompously ordered the gentlemen to "move on," but having had no experience with machinery they were placed in a dilemma, so they were obliged to confess their inability to comply with the order, to the great amusement of the bystanders. When its master arrived the locomotive moved off in good style and returned to Stratford.

On the 22nd of June, Hyde Park presented an unusually gay appearance in consequence of a crowd of fashionable people being assembled to witness the trial of this little favourite steam carriage, which ran about among the splendid equipages for three or four hours without the slightest failure. Mr. Hancock guided it, caused it to turn in its own length, repeatedly stopping and starting it, then ran a distance at the rate of twelve miles an hour. The nobility who had met for the purpose of seeing it were delighted; their horses, too, were not frightened, because it was noiseless, and it emitted no smoke or steam.

In the early part of 1839, Hancock stated by advertisement that he had prepared his largest steam carriage, the Automaton, see Fig. 45, for traffic, and was ready to enter into engagements with responsible parties to run on any turnpike roads. An old inhabitant of Stratford, in June, 1839, said: "I have repeatedly noticed the performance of Hancock's carriages from the first of his experiments up to his present state of perfection in steam locomotion on common roads. A few days ago the Automaton ran from Stratford, through Ilford, and thence back through Stratford to the city, at fifteen miles an hour. Meeting the procession of the Lord Mayor and other city authorities going to hold a Court of Conservancy at the Swan Inn, Stratford, Hancock headed the procession to their destination, and in front of the house caused the carriage to perform a number of short trips and masterly evolutions, carrying at one time no less than thirty-two of the conservancy jury, quite to everyone's satisfaction."

The last trip we shall record is a novel one, performed as late as July 1840. A cricket club borrowed the Automaton of Mr Hancock to convey eleven of the Stratford Club and twenty-one visitors to the Forest. The run was a pleasant one, the carriage went properly with thirty-two people on board, although there were seats provided for only 22 passengers. The game was played, the Stratford team won, and returned to the factory gate at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. Numbers of persons who went to see the match occupied their time in viewing the conveyance that brought the players to the field, rather than the players themselves; but this personal neglect was good humouredly put up with by the club.

Mr. Ogle says: Mr. Hancock, for want of support, was obliged to withdraw his carriages from the most difficult road in England, viz., the new road from the Bank to Paddington. Hancock says: "I entered upon that road, and continued running daily, solely with a view to demonstrate the practicability of so doing in the teeth of high authority to the contrary."

We now take leave of Mr. Hancock, the most successful locomotionist of those times, who, during sixteen years experience, built ten different carriages, each of which was creditably designed and made; and the later ones, as we have seen, were most successful. And the wonder is, how it happened that mere speculators, in several instances, who never made a steam carriage that would run the shortest distance without a breakdown, managed to float companies for the purpose of introducing their locomotives, which were not a success, while Hancock and Maceroni, the former a modest and retiring man, the latter rather boastful, both of whom built carriages far surpassing any of their contemporaries, were most unfortunate in their connection with the companies they were instrumental in forming for helping forward the steam locomotion movement.

Sir Frederick Bramwell says: "It is quite Certain that in respect of quietude of travelling, and in the way of not being an annoyance to of others upon the road, Hancock's coaches of fifty years ago far exceeded anything of the present day. It may be asked why it was that if they were so meritorious in an engineering point of view, they did not continue to run? This is a difficult question to answer. Hancock always endeavoured to show that they paid, but it is believed that he was a better engineer and inventor than commercial man. Be this as it may however, it is unhappily the case that after many years of effort he gave up the endeavour."

See Also

Sources of Information

1. ↑ The Newcastle Courant etc (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England), Saturday, June 20, 1829
2. ↑ Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1831 as quoted in Motors and Motor-driving
3. ↑ The Bury and Norwich Post: Or, Suffolk and Norfolk Telegraph, Essex, Cambridge, & Ely Intelligencer (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Wednesday, February 16, 1831
4. ↑ The Morning Chronicle (London, England), Monday, July 30, 1832
5. ↑ The Leicester Chronicle: or, Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser (Leicester, England), Saturday, August 04, 1832
6. ↑ The Morning Chronicle (London, England), Monday, November 5, 1832
7. ↑ The Morning Chronicle (London, England), Monday, December 31, 1832
8. ↑ The Examiner (London, England), Sunday, April 28, 1833
9. ↑ Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser (Exeter, England), Thursday, September 5, 1833
10. ↑ The Standard, Wednesday, August 20, 1834
11. ↑ 1841 Census
12. ↑ The Morning Post, Monday, April 26, 1841
13. ↑ The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties (Colchester, England), Friday, May 21, 1852

• [1] Wikipedia
• Buses and Trolleybuses before 1919 by David Kaye. Published 1972
• British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816
• Steam Engine Builders of Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire by Ronald H. Clark. Published 1950 by The Augustine Steward Press