John Smith (of Coven)
John Smith of Village Foundry, Coven were general engineers and builders of road traction, portable and winding engines
c.1855 John Fowler introduced ploughing by steam power, which was developed by him in conjunction with John Smith, of Coven, in Staffordshire.[1]
1856/7 Developed an original form of traction engine with the boiler carried independently of the rest of the machinery[2]
1858 Smith built for Fowler an under-drum ploughing engine which type continued in use for 40 years or more.
Later Smith was joined by J. B. Higgs and known as Smith and Higgs
1862 Built steam locomotives for Fletcher, Solly and Urwick
A small geared locomotive of unusual design, one of six built by Smith in the early 1860s, was described and illustrated by A. R. Fletcher[3]. It had been bought by Isaac Watt Boulton from a closed-down blast furnace in Staffordshire. It was refurbished by Boulton and hired out to various firms, and finally sold to the Weaver Navigation in 1880. A. R. Fletcher also referred to Smith's building four locomotives for Chillington Iron Works of Wolverhampton. They also built a locomotive for Barnetts of Pelsall. It was noted that the Coven works was subsequently used as a brewery for several years, and by 1927 it was in use as a concrete slab factory.
'More information has come to light about John Smith, the Coven enginebuilder of many years ago, concerning whom a London reader sought news. Mr. Francis G. Peake, of St. John's House, Lichfield, writes enclosing a rubbing of a name-plate of an engine made at Coven by Smith. The inscription is, "John Smith, engineer, Village Foundry, Coven, Wolverhampton." Mr. Peake says the plate was formerly on a six-wheel tank railway locomotive which, he believes, was built for the ironworks at Pelsall - either Fryer’s or Davis's or Bloomer’s —before 1865. It was built at Coven and delivered by road, being drawn by horses on special road wheels. It weighed in working order about 22 tons. The locomotive eventually passed into the possession of the Walsall Wood Colliery Co., Ltd., near Walsall, and was worked by that company until 1915, when it was broken up. Mr. Peake, who is the head of the Waiuall Wood Colliery Co. at the present time, and well known in the public Hfe of that district, had information about the Smith engine from the old engine-wright at Pelsall in 1894. I am much obliged to Mr. Peake for his communication, for the facts he gives, and the rubbing he encloses throw most useful light on the history of the noted foundry at Coven.'[4]
1862 Built a 54 inch thrashing machine with a single fan to suck up grain
1864 Smith and Higgs was dissolved; John Smith, the younger continued the business.
1866 Company founded.
1868 John Smith junior, engineer and patent boiler manufacturer, iron and brass founders, agent to and manufacturers of John Fowler junior's patent stem ploughs[5]
Later built a further 20-30 railway steam locomotives
1874 The firm closed and the contents were auctioned off
See here for an excellent illustrated account of the business and its products [6].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1903/06/12 Supplement
- ↑ The Engineer 1876/12/08
- ↑ 'The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding' by A. R. Bennett, The Locomotive Publishing Co Ltd, 1927
- ↑ Staffordshire Advertiser, 2 February 1935
- ↑ 1868 Post Office Directory
- ↑ [1] John Smith of Coven by Bev Parker
- British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816