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Japan steam train8/7/2023 The need for less polluting trains in underground subways and tunnels drove the adoption of electric locomotives in the decades to follow, while the improved efficiency and simpler manufacturing brought about by the introduction of alternating current made electric trains feasible on longer lines and steeper sections of track. Siemens went on to build the world’s first electric tram line in the Berlin suburb of Lichterfelde in 1881, setting the stage for the likes of Volk’s Electric Railway in Brighton and the Mödling & Hinterbrühl Tram in Vienna, which both opened in 1883. The train, which established the concept of the insulated third rail to supply electricity, transported a total of 90,000 passengers around a circular track over a four-month period Germany was a hub of electric locomotive development in the late 19th century, with the first experimental electric passenger train demonstrated by Werner von Siemens, inventor and founder of multinational engineering company Siemens AG, in 1879. By the time Stephenson died in 1848, having established his company as the leading builder of railways in the UK, US and continental Europe, Britain alone was criss-crossed by 2,440 miles of railway supporting 30 million passengers. Stephenson would go on to build the world’s first steam-powered intercity railway line between Liverpool and Manchester, which opened in 1830 and kicked off the steam train revolution in earnest. Inspired by the work of Trevithick and Murray, Stephenson is said to have built 16 experimental locomotives for use at the Killingworth Colliery between 18, starting with Blücher – another locomotive name with its origins in the Napoleonic Wars – and culminating with the Killingworth Billy, which ran on the Killingworth Railway until 1881. It is George Stephenson, however, who has risen above all other steam locomotive innovators to become known as the father of railways and one of the pre-eminent engineers and designers of the Victorian era. Salamanca, which was built to run on the Middleton Railway, was the first locomotive to incorporate two cylinders and the first to use the rack and pinion linear actuator to convert rotational motion into forward momentum. Matthew Murray proved the commercial viability of steam locomotion in 1812 with Salamanca, a locomotive named after the Duke of Wellington’s 1812 victory in the battle of the same name. 1812-1848: moving steam forwardįrom the humble beginnings of Trevithick’s Penydarren locomotive, steam-powered rail transport gradually built momentum in Britain through the first half of the 19th century, with subsequent innovators building on the foundation he set. His work was publicly recognised in 2004 – the bicentenary of his feted demonstration – by the Royal Mint, which released a commemorative £2 coin bearing his name and his invention. Trevithick never received the recognition he deserved for his pioneering role in railway locomotion, and died destitute and forgotten in 1833. Shortly after, the engine was returned to its original stationary role at the ironworks. On 21 February 1804, Trevithick’s locomotive made the journey in just over four hours, winning Homfray the bet and vindicating the high-pressure steam concept. Trevithick’s benefactor and owner of the Penydarren Ironworks, Samuel Homfray, placed a wager for 500 guineas with iron merchant Richard Crawshay that Trevithick’s locomotive – adapted from a stationary steam engine being used to drive a hammer at the ironworks – could haul ten tonnes of iron from the Penydarren Ironworks to the village of Abercynon nearly ten miles away. The key demonstration of the locomotive was prompted, strangely enough, by a bet. Nevertheless, Trevithick’s ‘Penydarren locomotive’, secured a central place in the history of locomotive technology when it became the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive. Trevithick’s rivals used the incident to argue the risks of high-pressure steam. 1804: Trevithick kicks off the age of steam powerīefore his big rail breakthrough in 1804, British mining engineer, inventor and explorer Richard Trevithick had been working on high-pressure steam engines for several years with mixed results, from the successful demonstration of the ‘Puffing Devil’ steam-powered road locomotive in 1802 to disaster in Greenwich in 1803, when four men were killed by an explosion of one of Trevithick’s stationary pumping engines.
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