William Hedley
Marshall states that William Hedley was born in Newburn-on-Tyne on 13 July 1779 and died near Lanchester in County Durham on 9 January 1843. He was appointed viewer at Newbottle Colliery in 1800, but was "head-hunted" by Christopher Blackett and moved to Wylam Colliery where he developed locomotives with Timothy Hackworth. In 1813 he built in the colliery workshops the Wylam Dilly. Intended for his plateway, it had four flangeless wheels. The two vertical cylinders drove a central crankshaft through connecting rods, and this crankshaft actuated the driving wheels by spur gears. This locomotive and its sisters proved successful for slow haulage. A feature was the fitting of a silencer. through which the steam passed before exhausting to atmosphere. The boiler was of the Trevithick type, so well-made that it assured the success of the return flue idea. Hedley's second machine (1813) was the famous Puffing Billy first of the so-called 'grasshopper' type.
See: Transactions of the Newcomen Society, Vol. XXVIII; C. F. Dendy Marshall, History of the Railway Locomotive down to the end of the Year 1831 (1953).
Carpenter, George W. revision of biography by W.A.J. Archbold Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Marshall notes that Christopher Blackett was born in 1751 and died in 1829. He was squire of Wylam between 1800 and 1829 and thus owned Wylam Colliery where the steam locomotive evolved under Hedley, Stephenson and several others. Marshall noted several sources on the history of the colliery.
Marshall states was born in South Tyne Valley in 1775 and died in Wylam in 1860. In 1809 was enginewright at Wylam Colliery and assisted Hackworth and Hedley in construction of first locomotive at Wylam.
2005-11-02