Joseph Hamilton Beattie
Born in Ireland on 12 May 1808 and died [of diphtheria] in Surbiton on 18 October 1871. (Marshall). Ellis: Twenty... "Martinets are going to be fairly conspicuous in this book" is how the Chapter on Beattie begins] Bradley called him "austere". A hot-tempered Irishman and prolific inventor, Joseph Beattie took charge of the locomotives of the LSWR from 1 July 1850 following John Viret Gooch's departure for the Eastern Counties Railway. He had worked for Locke on the Grand Junction Railway and joined the LSWR as an Assistant Engineer in 1838 at £200 per annum.
Beattie was one of the first British locomotive superintendents to abandon the single driver locomotive (in 1859) in favour of the 2-4-0. Under the influence of Beyer, whose firm built most of the LSWR locomotives, his designs slowly grew more pleasing to the eye. He devoted much time and energy to improving the locomotive boiler, registering many patents. He was a pioneer in designing fireboxes to burn coal instead of coke: this involved the development of extremely complex fireboxes with internal partitions and with holes to admit air into the fire/s. He also experimented with feedwater heaters, soon realizing that the exhaust steam used to provide the heat must be kept from actual contact with the feedwater. He retained a low centre of gravity for his locomotives after some his contemporaries had abandoned this quest. Hewison (Locomotive boiler explosions pp 48-50) considers one very serious explosion which afflicted a Beattie locomotive at Basingstoke on 10 October 1857.
Patents
Some locomotive inventions of Joseph Beattie. Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,. Vols 41 and 42.
8741/1840 16 December 1840: Locomotive engines, carriages, chairs,
and wheels used on railways, machinery and their construction.
13,782/1851 22 October 1851: Construction of
railways, locomotive-engines and carriages used thereon; machinery by which
some of the improvements are affected.
Omnibus claims: axles, points, switches...
69/1853 11 January 1853: Economizing fuel in the
generation and heating of steam.
259/1854 1 February 1854: Furnaces, treatment of
steam.
2129/1855 24 September 1855: Furnaces and boilers
for the generation of steam; apparatus for the application and treatment
thereof.
2175/1855 Railway wheels and axles: 29 September
1855.
??/1858 Locomotives. 19 February 1858
axleboxes
938/1859 14 April 1859: Means of preventing locomotive
engines and carriages in motion on railways leaving or running off the rails.
Other references to
See:
Bradley, D.L. Locomotives of
the L.S.W.R. Part 1. RCTS 1965.
H. Ellis, The South Western Railway(1956).
Ellis, C.H. Joseph Hamilton Beattie. Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1944, 50, 48.
The original material for the same Author's Twenty locomotive men.
This contains some additional illustrations.
William George Beattie
William George Beattie succeeded to his father's post upon his father's death (he had joined the LSWR as a draughtsman in 1862). He was not a success and was forced to resign in 1877. He died in London on 28 May 1918. John Marshall.
Patent
559/1864. Locomotive [spark arrestor]. 5 March 1864.
2006-03-09