Timothy Hackworth

Timothy Hackworth (December 22, 1786 – July 7, 1850) was a steam locomotive mechanical engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham

1786 Born on 22 December 1786 in Wylam, Northumberland, the eldest of three sons and five daughters of John Hackworth (d. 1802), master blacksmith at Wylam colliery, and his wife, Elizabeth Sanderson of Newcastle.

1800 At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed, initially to his father who was foreman blacksmith at Wylam Colliery and who died the following year. He showed a natural aptitude for mechanical construction, and on completing his apprenticeship he was appointed to his late father's post at the colliery. There he was involved in experiments with steam locomotion.

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.

At the end of his apprenticeship in 1807 Timothy took over his his father's position. Since 1804, the mine owner, Christopher Blackett had been investigating the possibilities of working the mine's short 5-mile colliery tramroad by steam traction. Blackett set up a four-man working group including himself, William Hedley, the viewer; Timothy Hackworth, the new foreman smith and Jonathan Foster, a "wright". The first step in 1808 was the relaying of the Wylam tramway with cast iron plates, until then a simple timber-way.

In 1811, the four-man team began investigating the adhesive properties of smooth wheels using a manually operated carriage propelled by a maximum of four men, and in the same year a single-cylinder locomotive devised by one Waters, reportedly on the Trevithick model, was built and tried for a few months with erratic results

In 1812 Hackworth and Jonathan Foster, the colliery engine-wright, were responsible for the Wylam Grasshopper

In 1813 Hackworth married Jane Golightly, who shared his devout Methodism. They had three sons and six daughters; the eldest son, John Wesley Hackworth (1820–1891), carried on the business after his father's death.

In 1840 Hackworth left the Stockton and Darlington Railway to concentrate on his own engineering business, conducted from new workshops at New Shildon, where locomotive, marine, and industrial engines and boilers were built

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, 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.

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.

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.

1850 His death took place from typhus on 7 July 1850 at his home, Soho, Shildon, co. Durham. He is commemorated by the Timothy Hackworth Museum at Shildon.

Today he has a school named after him in his hometown of Shildon where the pupils annually learn of Timothy Hackworth and his work on trains. His home was also turned into a museum, which has since being renovated and a large museum called The National Railway Museum at Shildon built nearby.

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