American locomotive engineers

Allen, Horatio
Born in Schenectady on 10 May 1802 and died in Motrose, New Jersey, on 1 January 1890. Graduate of Columbia University with high homours in mathematics. Began his engineering career working on Delaware & Hudson Canal. In 1826 he visted Britain to study the Stephenson type of locomotive and met George Stephenson. He ordered one locomotive from Robert Stephenson and three from Foster, Rastrick of Stourbridge: one of these, the Stourbridge Lion, was the first locomotive to rrun on a public line in the USA. In 1832 he arranged for the construction of the world's first articulated locomotive, a 2-2-0 + 0-2-2 at West Point Foundry, for use on the South Carolina Railroad. Marshall.

Baird, Matthew
Born in County Londonderry (Derry) in 1817, but moved with parents to Philadelphia in 1821. Superintendent of the workshops of the Newcastle & Frenchtown Railroad in 1836. In 1834 bought an interest in Baldwin Works and on death of Baldwin he became sole proprietor. Associated with initial use of firebrick arch in 1854 (US Patent 18,883 issued 15 December 1857). Retired in 1873 and died in Philadelphia on 19 May 1877. Marshall and Wikepedia.

Baldwin, Matthias William
Born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey on 10 November 1795 and died in Philadelphia on 7 September 1866. Founder of famous locomotive building firm. See John Marshall and H.M. Le Fleming in Illustrated encyclopedia of world railway locomotives.

Bissell, Levi
Marshall states that Bissell was born in about 1800 and died in New York City on 5 August 1873. Best known for the Bissel[l] Truck, more correctly Bissell truck, the American Bissell also devised in about 1840 an air spring for locomotives. This was a small cylinder placed over the axlebox, with its piston rod bearing onthe latter. Sufficient air would then be pumped into the cylinder tomake a pneumatic shock absorber. To ensure a hermetic seal the piston had leather packing, with molasses (treacle) as a lubricant. This device was never adopted, and probably never worked, although at one time Matthias Baldwin contemplated its use as a means to circumvent the Eastwick & Harrison patent for equalizing beams.

The Bissel (Bissell) Truck (both spellings are used), which was widely adopted, was a leading pair of carrying wheels which swivelled around a point just in front of the first driving axle. It was the rear frame of this truck which (by means of two horizontal radial links) was connected to the swivelling point. On a curve the truck slid laterally on short inclined planes.The advantage of this truck was that it did not force the driving axles into an unnatural alignment on curved track. Sekon (Evolution of the steam locomotive pp. 216-17) quotes from an advertisement placed by Bissell "in truly American style" in the columns of the "sober railway newspapers" to note the application of the Bissel truck to locomotives on the Metropolitan Railway and to eight-wheeled carriages on the UK Great Eastern Railway.

Patent (British)
1273/1857

See: A. Sinclair, The Development of the Locomotive Engine (1907)
J.H. White, American Locomotives: an Engineering History 1830-1880 (1968).

Campbell, Henry R.
Born in about 1810 and died in about 1870. Originator of the 4-4-0 which he patented in 1837. Chief engineer of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad 1832-9. Chief engineer Vermont Central Railroad 1848-55. Marshall

Cassatt, A.J.
President of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1899 until his death in 1906. R. Bell shows links between the greatest of English railways (the North Eastern) with this American line. Several NER officials visited Pennsylvania.

Cole, Francis J.
Born in England in 1856: After working on the West Shore and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads he moved to the Rogers Locomotive Works and from 1902 at ALCO where he made major contributions to locomotive design. In 1914 his Locomotive ratios was published. He died in Pasadena, California on 11 January 1923. Marshall Atkins (Dropping the fire) consideres that the Cole experimental and demonstrator (with superheater) 4-6-2s built by the American Locomotive Co. for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1907 and 1910, and which led to the celebrated PRR K4 class in 1914 led not only to the Gresley Pacifics, but also to the Britannia class in terms of overall concept (Atkins' italics).

Corliss, George Henry
1817-1888. See H.W. Dickinson A short history of the steam engine. Inventor and manufacturer of high power stationary steam engines as used by Ramsbottom in the rail rolling mills at Crewe.

Crawford, D.F.
Invented a mechanical stoker which exploited the Westinghouse compressed air supply to drive it: worked on Pennsylvania Railroad

Eames, Fred W.
About a year after John Y. Smith’s brake went on the market, Fred W. Eames received his first patent (No. 153,814, dated 4 August 1874). It appears that the primary difference between Eames’ brake and Smith’s was that the latter used a piston, mounted on the car, while Eames’ used diaphragms mounted separately on each truck. Eames established the Eames Vacuum Brake Company 14 February 1876, and began manufacturing the brakes in his father’s machine shop on Beebee’s Island at Watertown, New York. Off Internet..

Eddy, Wilson
1813-1898. Master Mechanic Western Railroad, subsequently Boston & Albany Railroad. Developer of large boilers. Skeletal information in Marshall who quotes White..

Ennis, Joseph Burroughs
Born Wortendyke New Jersey in 1879. Died 22 September 1955. Began work as draughtsman with Rogers Locomotive Co. in 1895. Major designer of ALCO locomotives, becoming Chief Mechanical Engineer in 1912 and Vice President for engineering in 1917. He was a senior vice president between 1941 and his retirement in 1947. Marshall..

Forney, Matthias Nace
Marshall notes that he was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania on 28 March 1835 and died in New York City on 14 January 1908. Between 1861 and 1864 he worked for the Illinois Central Railroad where he patented an 0-4-4T (back tank) with outside cylinders. He took out many patents according to Marshall and had extensive interests in journalism (periodicals and books) about railroads. See also Hennessey Backtrack, 2004, 18, 454.

Fry, Lawford Howard
Born in Canada in 1873, died New York 10 July 1948: was an international authority on railway motive power.Brought to Britain at an early age, and received his general education at Bedford Grammar School from 1886 to 1890. Two years’ apprenticeship in the locomotive shops of the South Eastern Railway’s Ashford works under James Stirling.,Obtained his theoretical training at the Central Technical Institute and at the University of Göttingen and the Technische Hochschule at Hanover. In 1897 he went to the USA and after three years’ further training at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, under S.M. Vauclain, was for the next six years assistant to the latter, being chiefly in charge of testing. He came to London in 1906 as the technical representative in Europe for the Baldwin Company. Seven years later he returned to America to take charge of the metallurgical department of the Standard Steel Works at Burnham, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1930. Subsequently he joined the Edgewater Steel Company, of Pittsburg, as railway engineer, an appointment he resigned in 1943 to become director of research at the Steam Locomotive Research Institute in New York, where under his personal and energetic direction work on locomotive research was greatly accelerated and valuable results obtained. Mr. Fry contributed a number of articles to the journals of the engineering institutions of which he was a member, and he presented two papers to the IMechE, the first in 1908 on “Combustion and Heat Balances in Locomotives”, and the second in 1927 on Experimental Results from a Three-cylinder Compound Locomotive, for which he was awarded the T. Bernard Hall Prize in the following year. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which awarded him the Worcester Reed Warner Medal in 1938 for his “contributions relating to improved locomotive design and utilization of better materials in railway equipment”. He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. (Obituary, Proc. Instn Mrech. Engrs., 1949, 160, 407).

Books

Locomotive proportions. 1911.
Reprinted from The Engineer
A study of the locomotive boiler. Simmons Boardman, 1926.
Frequently cited by more theoretically minded locomotive engineers in 1930s

Fry also contributed to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers

Gilbert, George
Developer of a competitor to the Shay type of logging locomotive, known as the Climax type, which also used vertical or steeply inclined cylinders to drive through bevel gears and shafts. (Rutherford, Backtrack, 1998, 12, 387 (388))

Griggs, Geoge S.
Born in New England in 1805; died in 1870. Marshall is unusually vague, and only incorporated because included in David Ross's Willing servant. In 1834 appointed Master Mechanic of Boston & Providence Railroad. In 1839 patented a continuous brake. Patented wooden cushion driving wheels. Introduced firebrick arch in 1857, and probably invented diamond stack chimney.

Heisler, Charles
Rutherford, Backtrack, 1998, 12, 387 (388) notes that from 1894 the Stearns Manufacturing Co. of Erie Pennsylvania marketed a logging type of locomotive with a Vee-type engine mounted under the boiler and driving through shafts and bevel gears: this had been developed by Charles Heisler.

Jabelmann, Otto
Responsible for the design of the high speed Mallets (Challengers and Big Boys) used on the Union Pacific Railroad. See (briefly): Backtrack, 2001, 15, 554. The following was obtained from a website in the USA: To say that Big Boy is big is somewhat of an understatement. In reality, it holds the title as the largest steam locomotive in the world  in virtually every dimension. The class was designed to haul heavy freight over Sherman Hill in Wyoming and over the Wahsatch Mountains of Utah. The Union Pacific Railroad was facing a serious traffic challenge in these two areas. Freight tonnage was steadily increasing as the USA prepared for WW2. The existing motive power could not cope, and double- or triple-heading was needed, placing a severe strain on locomotive crews and equipment. A much larger locomotive was needed. The U.P. designed and built several successful Challenger (4-6-6-4) classes in an attempt to solve the problem. However, still more power was needed in a single locomotive. William Jeffers, U.P. president at the time, wanted a locomotive which could haul a 3,600 ton train over the Wahsatch Mountains. Running east from Riverdale Yard in Ogden, elevation 4,355 feet, trains faced a severe grade to the summit at Wahsatch, at 6,799 feet, only 62 miles away. The same was true in Wyoming. Westbound trains leaving Cheyenne, elevation. 6,060 feet, climbed for 30 miles to the summit of Sherman Hill, at. 8,013 feet.

Responsibility for the design fell on the shoulders of Otto Jabelmann, vice president in charge of the Department of Research and Mechanical Standards. Jabelmann and his staff, who at the time were working upwards of 60 hours per week on a massive system-wide rebuilding project, took a mere three months to complete the design for Big Boy. In all, it took only 15 months from concept until the first Big Boy left the erecting bay. It had a vast boiler, ample water supply and, tons of coal.The 4000 class weighs nearly 1.2 million pounds when fully loaded with coal and water. They measured over 132 feet long and are Mallet simple articulateds.

The large 14-wheel tender attached to Big Boy could carry 28 tons of coal and 24,000 gallons of water. This was enough to feed the locomotive for about an hour when hauling a train over the Wahsatch or Sherman Hill. The two mechanical stokers enabled the Big Boys to consume 9,9 tons of coal per hour. In fact, a fuel stop was usually required at Red Buttes or Harriman between Cheyenne and Laramie, a distance of 55 miles. A total of 25 Big Boys were constructed for the U.P. at a cost of about $265,000 each. The first order, No. 4000-4019, was placed in 1940. The other five, No. 4020-4024, were ordered in 1944. The 4-8-8-4s built for the U.P. were the only locomotives ever built with this wheel arrangement. The engines were used regularly until 1959. When retired all of the Big Boys, except No. 4020-4024, had traveled over 1 million miles. Big Boy No. 4017 made its last trip on July 20, 1959 and retired with a total of 1,052,072 miles. Of the 25 Big Boys, eight have been preserved at separate locations within the USA.

Janney, Eli Hamilton
Born in Loudoun County Virginia on 12 November 1831 and died at Alexandria, Virginia on 16 June 1912. Inventor of automatic coupler, patented in 1868 and subsequently improved. Marshall. On April 1, 1873, Janney filed for a patent entitled Improvement in car-couplings claiming a knuckle style couplers which is still in use on railways. He was awarded US Patent 138,405 on April 29, 1873. An Espacenet search through up: 2332/1905 Improvements in and relating to car couplings. and 26483/1909 Improvements in and relating to car couplings which greatly post-date British uptake of this type of coupler.

Johnson, Ralph. P.
Chief Engineer, Baldwin Locomotive works: author of:
The Steam Locomotive., 2nd ed. New York: Simmons Boardman, 1945.

La Mont, Walter Douglas
Inventor of forced circulation watertube boiler (USP 1,545,668, applied 1918, granted 1925 and many others). Dickinson, H.W. A short history of the steam engine. 1938. Stanier considered employing this type of boiler on an advanced turbine locomotive. One such boiler installed at Imperial Chemical Industries, Nantwich (Sir Harold Hartley connection? KPJ) See Barnes. Only one British patent: 517,323 of 1940. Rutherford, Backtrack, 2002, 16, 515: skeletal diagram p. 516..

Lewis, David Miller
Inventor of draughting system which aimed to control back pressure. Took out several US Patents in 1920s: e.g. USP 1,539,125 of 1925. Company known as Lewis Draft Appliance. Lawson Billinton modified one of his K class 2-6-0s with the apparatus. Specific British patent protection does not appear to have been sought.

Loree, Leonor Fresnel
Marshall states born Fulton City in Illinois on 23 April 1858 and died in West Orange, New Jersey on 6 September 1940. He was a civil engineer and railway executive. Educated Rutgers College. He worked both for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the US Army Corps of Engineers. In 1884 he became engineer of maintenance of way, Indianapolis and Vincennes division of the Pennsyvania RR, and in 1888 in its Pittsburgh division which, with its large traffic in ore and coal, and many curves, was considered a severe operating problem. Loree increased operating efficiency, introducing the lap siding. His continued progress led to him being made general manager of Penn Lines West in 1896 and fourth vice president in 1901. Early in 1901 the Pennsylvania acquired a controlling interest in the Baltimore & Ohio to which Loree was elected vice president. His innovations and leadership resulted in much improved efficiency and co-operation with other railroads. He introduced Walschaerts valve gear and Mallet locomotives.  He gradually became responsible for more railroads and took a leading role in guiding the course of railroad politics in the eastern states. In 1922 he published Railroad Freight Transportation, an outstanding analysis.

McQueen, Walter
One of that multitude of Scotsmen (Marshall born 1817, died 1893) who participated in the early development of the American locomotive, Walter McQueen built his first locomotive in 1840 at Albany. This was Old Puff, a Norris type machine. He was later master mechanic ('the best master mechanic in the country') at the Schenectady Locomotive Works and was evidently the life and soul of that Company, becoming superintendent in 1852 and subsequently a vice-president. He did much to develop the American 4-4-0, and in 1848 introduced the smokebox saddle. The latter, in the form of a plate, was primitive compared with Mason's later box form saddle, but nevertheless may be regarded as the forerunner of this component. See: J. H. White, American Locomotives: an Engineering History 1830-1880 (1968).

Miller, E.L.
E.L. Miller ordered Baldwin's second full size locomotive and the first to use Baldwin's patented "half crank" in which the wheel formed an arm of the driving crank by the use of an offset extension of the axle fastened to a wheel spoke. The engine was ordered in 1833. This locomotive, the Charleston & Hamburg's tenth, was named for Miller and was completed on February 18, 1834. The E.L. Miller was the first C&H locomotive to have a swivelling four-wheel truck (bogie) at the front and a pair of 54in driving wheels with the half crank located behind the firebox. The drivers were cast of solid bell metal, but these brass wheels which were to have superior adhesion soon wore out. No other locomotives were built with the same feature, although some were built later with brass tires. The C&H was disappointed in the performance of the engine and did not order another Baldwin product until 1836 when its 28th engine, The Philadelphia was ordered

Muhlfeld, John Ehrardt
Born Peru, Indiana on 18 September 1872. Died New York on 19 June 1941. Trained at Purdue University. Superintendent of Motive Power Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Master Mechanic Grand Truk Railway of Canada. In 1910 established himself as a Consulting Engineer. (John Marshall). Became involved in experiments with pulverized fuel (see publication) and David Jackson's J.G. Robinson: a lifetime's work (p. 192 et seq) for experiments involving Robinson 2-8-0 type. Marshall claims that Muhlfeld was responsible for the first Mallet locomotives in the USA. Three cross compound 2-8-0s were constructed for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. A triple expansion 4-8-0 with a boiler pressure of 500 psi and a water tube firebox, but with a fire tube boiler was also supplied. These locomotives are barely mentioned by van Riemsdijk. This is mainly from Marshall (including the publications, only the last of which is a book: verified Library of Congress Catalog): remainder presumably reports.

Publications
Pulverized fuel for locos. New York. 1916
Tractive power and haulage capacity of steam locos. New York, 1924.
Economics of railway motive power and train service. New York, 1935.
The railroad problem and its solution. New York: Devin Adir, 1941. 290pp.
Articles in 14th and 15th editions of Encyclopedia Britannica. and probably involved in eight volume Complete Practical Railroading (Chicago: International School of Engineers, 1911)
Also may have contributed paper at 7th International Railway Congress in Washington in 1905.

Nicholson, John L.
Inventor of thermic syphon, sometimes known as Nicholson thermic syphon: huge number of patents. No biographical data.

Norris, William
William Norris was born Baltimore, Maryland on 2 July 1802 and died in Philadelphia 5 January 1867 (Marshall). William was one of several brothers associated with the Norris Locomotive Works, Septimus was probably the most inventive. It was his elder brother, William Norris, who played the leading role in establishing the works in Philadelphia and in popularizing the Norris 4-2-0 locomotive in the 1840s. This design, which was sold to a British and several European railways, was partly derived from Bury locomotives that had earlier entered the USA. Septimus was probably responsible for the first 4-6-0 locomotive, Chesapeake, which the Works turned out in 1846, and he patented several inventions. See: Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, 10, 79, 109; Dewhurst.Norris locomotives in England. Trans Newcomen Soc.,1947/8, 26, 13..

Player, John
Born in England in 1860. Taken to America in 1868, but father died in 1870 and returned to England, but by 1881 was a special apprentice in the Pennsylvania Railroad's drawing office in Altoona. By 1887 he was Senior Designer at the Brooks Locomotive Works in Dunkirk in New Jersey, a firm with which he stayed until after it became the American Locomotive Co. In 1885 Brooks supplied the Pennsylvanai Railroad with a locomotive with Belpaire boiler: by 1892 Brooks was supplying Player/Belpaire boilers or Patent Belpaire boilers. A patent for this type was applied for on 18 August 1892 and USP 499,587 was granted on 13 June 1893. Patent claimed type was resistant to sagging and the advantages of longer and more flexible stays. No reference was made to improved in circulation or in reduction of stress.

Cook, A.F. Raising steam on the LMS: the evolution of LMS locomotive boilers. 1999.
Part of the complex RCTS History of LMS locomotives.

Porta, Livio Dante
Wikepedia entry: born Rosario, Argentina on 21 March 1922 and died on 10 June 2003. Other than his brief involvement in the American Coal Enterprise Project during the 1980s he spent his whole life in the Argentibe. Applied Chapelon principles to existing locomotive stock of the Argentinian State Railways. His modification (including his version of the Chapelon exhaust, the 'Kylpor') increased the capacity of the standard 2-6-2T to that of the 2-6-4T type. His modified 4-8-0 also registered a significant increase of power output. Porta's experimental 'gas producer' firebox admitted most air above the fuel bed; the latter was at a low (dull red) temperature, most of the combustion taking place above the fire, in the combustion space. His most outstanding work was on the Rio Turbio 750mm coal carrying railway in bleak Southern Patagonia where a huge increase in haulage capacity was achieved on the line's 2-10-2 locomotives. See Steam locomotive development in Argentina—its contribution to the future of railway technology in the under-developed countries J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1969,. 59, 205-56.

Rogers, Thomas
Born Groton, Connecticutt on 16 March 1792 and died New York 19 April 1856. (Marshall) Parallels with Charles Bayer and the Manchester engineers in that Rogers had a background in textile engineering before founding the Rogers Locomotive Works in 1837. In 1849 he adopted the link motion; in 1850 the wagon-top boiler was invented and in 1854 the I-section coupling rod. The Rogers company supplied 6300 locomotives before being absorbed by the American Locomotive Company in 1905. H.M. Le Fleming (Concise encyclopaedia).

Shay, Ephraim
Marshall born in Ohio on 17 July 1839 and died in Harbor Springs, Michigan on 20 April 1816. Inventor of the geared Shay locomotive in 1873 (Rutherford, Backtrack, 1998, 12, 387 (388)). Manufacturing rights sold to Lima Machine Works of |Lima, Ohio which patented the type in 1881. Initially employed two vertical cylinders (later three) and power was transmitted via shafts and universal joints to one side of the locomotive. The machines were intended to be capable to operate on very low grade track used in logging.

Stevens, John
Born in New York in 1749. Died in Hoboken on 6 March 1838. Powell called him "Farher of American railroads. Developed vertical boilers and steamboats. He patented a multitubular boiler and built a steamboat with screw propellers. On 6 February 1815 the State of New Jersey passed the first American railroad Act to connect Trenton to Rariton, near New Brunswick. He was responsible for establishing the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1825 he designed and built a steam locomotive which ran on a circular track on his estate at Hoboken. Marshall.

Strickland, William
Identified by William Levitt (Early Railways 3) as being a key figure in the transfer of railway technology to the USA. Wikepedia entry states born in Navesink NJ in November 1788 and died in Nashville on 6 April 1854. Notable American architect.

Townsend, A.J.
Chief engineer at Lima: inventor of double Belpaire firebox which enhanced free gas area/grate area ratio. Casualty of rapid transition to diesel motive power. Atkins (Dropping the fire).

Train, George Francis
Born on 24 March 1829 and died on 5 January 1904. Wikepedia. Street tramway pioneer in Birkenhead and London. See portrait and article Backtrack, 2008, 22, 267.

Vauclain, Samuel Matthews
Born Philadephia on 18 May 1856 and died Rosemont, Pennsylvania on 4 February 1940. Marshall gives an excellent concise biography. He was the son of Andrew Vauclain, one of Baldwin's original workmen, and entered the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1883. H.M. Le Fleming (Concise encyclopaedia) noted that he was responsible for several patents on compounding notably one where the highh and low piston rods connected to common cross-heads. H.A.V. Bulleid's biography of his father includes a "bread and butter letter" from Vauclain to Ivatt thanking him for his hospitality at Doncaster in 1906. A four crank version arrived later. By 1907 two thousand compounds had been built and sold to his designs. In 1930 he wrote a ghosted autobiography called Steaming up with assistance of Earl Chapin May (New York: Brewer & Warren).

Patents
1,629,369 Triple expansion Mallet locomotive. Filed 25 November 1925. Issued 17 May 1927.
1,629,370 Triple expansion Mallet locomotive. Filed 25 November 1925. Issued 17 May 1927.
1,637,287 Driving wheel for locomotives. Filed 16 June 1927. Issued 26 July 1927
1,733,035 Driving wheel and axle. Filed 9 May 1929. Issued 22 October 1929
1,755,974 Locomotive. Filed 23 January 1925. Issued 22 April 1930
1,765,251 Locomotive. Filed 10 May 1929. Issued 17 June 1930. with Harry Glaenzer

Westinghouse, George
Born at Central Bridge in Schoharie County (NY) on 6 October 1846 and died in New York on 12 March 1914 (Marshall). Designer of the eponymous air braking system used on GER, NER, NBR, CR and LBSCR in Britain. There is general agreement that British Railways should have adopted air brake system far earlier than it did. Rowatt, T. Railway brakes.Trans Newcomen Soc.,1927, 8, 19-32.

Whyte, Frederick Methuen
See en passim: Rutherford: Backtrack 12-50 and in far greater depth in Hennessey's Wheels within wheels Backtrack, 19, 526. There is also a letter from John Power in Rly Arch., 2007 (16), pp. 55/6 which adds to the information, but spells Methuen as Methvan (as does Wikepedia 2007-07-20). The Whyte notation was outlined in American Engineer & Railroad Journal, 1900 (December) as Editorial comment and it would seem that the journal encouraged the adoption of the system. Rutherford argues that it was Churchward who brought the system to Britain..

Winans, Ross
Born Sussex Count, NJ, on 17 October 1796 and died Baltimore, Md on 11 April 1877. Became interested in railways in 1828 and joined Knight and McNeill on journey to England to study developments there. Briefly Engineer to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Manager of the firm Gillingham & Winans and took charge of the Mount Clare workshops of the B&O. Major innovator: claimed first bogie passenger coach in world. In 1842-4 built "Mud Digger" 0-8-0 locomotive and in 1848 first Camel 0-8-0 with wide firebox to burn anthracite. Marshall see also Loco Profile 9 by Brian Reed. Ahrons The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825-1925 p. 285 notes that Ross Winnans was using petticoat blast pipes for wood burning locomotives as early as 1848.

Woodward, William E.
Chief engineer at Lima and responsible for introducing the concept of Super power in the 1920s. Born Utica (NY) on 18 November 1873 and died 24 March 1942 (Marshall). Educated Cornell University. Worked at Baldwin, Dickson and Schenectady prior to the Alco amalgamation. See Backtrack, 2001, 15, 554.

Wootten, John E.
Born in 1822 and died in 1898 (Marshall)  Best known for the Wootten wide firebox, John E. Wootten was general manager of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in the 1870s, a period when many designers were trying to find away to burn local anthracite in locomotive fireboxes. Milholland (see p. 239) had had little success in this endeavour, but Z. Colburn devised a wide firebox that extended over the frames, and this was improved by master mechanic Charles Graham of the Lackawanna Railroad. Wootten took this firebox and added a combustion chamber, and it was this combination of Colbum firebox with Wootten's combustion chamber that was patented as the Wootten Firebox. The firebox was very wide and shallow, and had water tubes in the grate (although these were not essential to the concept). It was very successful in burning anthracite waste, which is why it was popular among Pennsylvanian railroads. Due to its size and shape, it was frequently associated with the 'camelback' layout (see Winans, p. 80). The first example appeared in 1877, and a 4-6-0 with this firebox was on show at the 1878 Paris Exhibition. See also Loco Profile 9 by Brian Reed.

See: Locomotive Engineering, Oct. 1900; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, 35.

2008-11-13