Engineers and Mechanics Encyclopedia 1839: Railways: Joseph Gibbs and Augustus Applegarth

We have now to notice the labours of two gentlemen, who are justly celebrated for their ingenuity and skill in mechanical construction, in various departments of art, besides that of locomotion by steam.

We allude to Joseph Gibbs, late of the Kent Road, and Augustus Applegarth, of Crayford in Kent, who had a joint patent, dated 29th March, 1833, for "certain improvements in steam-carriages." To give an intelligible description of the many original contrivances contained in their elaborate specification would, with the requisite illustrations, require five or six of our pages; we must therefore be content with giving an idea of the nature of the subjects, and refer the curious reader (for the present) to the enrolled parchments.

The first described improvement relates to the general arrangement of a steam-carriage. The boiler is of a very novel description, and consists of a series of double cones arranged one over the other, the external angles or spaces between which are receptacles for water, which is circumscribed externally by a cylindrical casing. The fire is in the centre of the series of cones, and operates upon their extensive surfaces; and the flue is so arranged as to repeat the heating operations by a descending current. There is also a curious combination of shafts, wheels, couplers and springs for varying the speed, &c.

See Also

Loading...