Timothy Hackworth - Definition and Overview

Timothy Hackworth was a locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and worked with George Stephenson on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

He was the inventor of an early steam locomotive, the Sans Pareil. His design in 1827 used a steam blast-pipe in the chimney to draw the fire, and he is usually acknowledged as the inventor of this concept. However, Sir 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. Hackworth's locomotive was heavy and the steam engine failed during the Rainhill Trials in October 1829. The engine was however subsequently used on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and can still be seen in action at the Timothy Hackworth Museum.

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.

External links

• Timothy Hackworth: Rail Pioneer (http://www.railcentre.co.uk/hackworth/hackworth1.htm)
• Timothy Hackworth (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAhackworth.htm)
• Timothy Hackworth Museum (http://www.hackworthmuseum.co.uk/)
• Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (http://www.hevac-heritage.org/victorian_engineers/sir_goldsworthy_gurney/sir_goldsworthy_gurney.htm) (1793-1875)
• chapter VIII, Stephenson's Engine (http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/brown/chpt8.html), in William H. Brown, The History of the First Locomotives In America. From Original Documents And The Testimony Of Living Witnesses, 1871