Richard Roberts by William Fletcher
Note: This is a sub-section of Richard Roberts
From Steam Locomotion on Common Roads by William Fletcher. Published 1891.
Mr. Roberts, of the celebrated firm of Sharp, Roberts and Co, engineers, Manchester, constructed a road locomotive, which was subjected to a public trial in December, 1833, which, while it served to reveal a few constructive imperfections easily removed, tended to establish the soundness of the principle on which the carriage was constructed.
The second trip took place in March, 1834. The carriage started from the works in Falkner Street, under the guidance of Mr. Roberts, with forty passengers. It proceeded about a mile and a half up Oxford Road, where, owing to the apprehension of a deficiency of water, a sudden turn was made, which was attended with some difficulty, as the road was narrow ; it then proceeded back to the works, where it arrived without accident. The maximum speed on the level was nearly twenty miles an hour. Hills were mounted easily No doubt existed of the engine being speedily put in complete and effective condition for actual service.
We regret to say that during another experimental trip in April, 1834, an accident occurred to this locomotive, which was reported to have been more serious than it actually was. Maceroni grossly exaggerates the accident by stating that "the boiler burst in the streets of Manchester, severely wounded several persons, and set fire to an apothecary's shop." It appears that the engine had travelled more than a mile from the works, when it was found that the pump on the engine did not work properly. The water in the boiler being dangerously low, the fire was quickly drawn; the boiler was filled with water to the proper level from a wayside pond, and the fire re-lighted. Mr. Roberts directed the carriage to be turned round, and it soon commenced its journey home, carrying from forty to fifty persons. It proceeded at a fair rate until it arrived near the corner of Rusholme Lane, where some of the boiler tubes gave way, and the steam escaping, blew the firebars down, and scattered the coke about in all directions, breaking several squares of glass in three shop windows near, slightly hurting a man and a boy who were hanging on behind the carriage. No one was seriously injured and none of the crowd of passengers were hurt. The carriage was removed to the works, drawn by four horses.
Several writers on steam road locomotion have accorded the credit of the invention of compensating gear to Mr. F. Hill, of Deptford, but it is our pleasure to be able to show that Mr. Roberts, the celebrated Manchester engineer, was the inventor of the compensating gear, which he used on the steam carriage we have just described. This compensating or differential gear is a device that superseded claw clutches, friction bands, ratchet wheels, and other complicated arrangements for obtaining the full power of both the driving wheels, and at the same time allowing for the engine to turn the sharpest corner without any difficulty. This compensating arrangement, introduced by Mr. Roberts nearly sixty years ago, is now universally adopted on modern traction engines.
Dr. Smiles, in his delightful book, "Industrial Biography," says that in 1839, Mr. Roberts invented an arrangement for communicating power to both driving wheels at all times, whether turning to the right or left.
Mr. Carrett used the gear on a little locomotive which he exhibited at the London Exhibition of 1862, and from an accurate description of the gear given by him, he admits that Roberts was the inventor. It is to be regretted that no particulars appear to have been given respecting the design of Roberts's interesting road locomotive. Emanating as it did from a famous engineering works, it doubtless far excelled in arrangement and workmanship the steam carriages produced by contemporary makers.
Mr. Roberts died in straitened circumstances in March, 1864, at the age of seventy-five years. One writer says Mr. Roberts "helped others in their difficulties, but forgot himself. Many have profited by his inventions without even acknowledging the obligations they owed to him. They have used his brains and copied his inventions, and the inventor is all but forgotten. It is lamentable to think that one of the most prolific and useful inventors of his time should in his old age have been left to fight with poverty."
As is our usual method of treating our benefactors, we allowed Mr. Roberts to live in obscurity and die in want, and after his sufferings were ended a memorial was reared to his memory.
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