Grasshoppers

[John WR]

Although there has been some discussion of grasshoppers on another thread I thought they deserve their own.  

Grasshoppers were the first American designed and built locomotives.  They had vertical boilers, vertical cylinders and rods connected to beams that bobbed up and down.  The rods and beams gave them their name.  Three names are associated with grasshoppers:  Peter Cooper, Phineas Davis and Ross Winnans.  About 20 were built for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  Here is a link to the section on Grasshoppers from the B&O Museum.  (Click on the pictures to enlarge them):

http://www.borail.org/Atlantic.aspx

This link is to a model of a grasshopper.  If you scroll down to the end you will find photographs of the details.  The workings of the engine can be clearly seen.

http://www.sidestreetbannerworks.com/locos/loco80.html

[Overmod]

Also see Pangborn (that great re-inventor of B&O power at the Columbian Exposition!) for some discussion of the early stuff.

I think I have posted about some of the reasons for the 'grasshopper' beams and apparent wackiness in other posts on here.

Remember that this is NOT the age where large forgings, strong materials, or precise machining techniques were available.  Suppose you have cylinders -- it's logical to put them in the top of the boiler to keep them hot and reduce what we now know are condensation losses.  The issue of the 'folded' mill engine was adequately solved by Oliver Evans prior to the 19th Century... I don't have the cites here, but they do exist.  The 'grasshopper' action allows the piston rod to move without need for a precise and rigid crosshead and guides, and the cross-articulation of the beams at the top, going to the rods and cranks on either side, handles any play, improper dimensions, wear and tear, etc.

Some of the early designs of composite rods are masterpieces of fabrication, better even than the Haupt bridge that so impressed Lincoln.

As soon as you had tooling and knowhow to secure a rigid bed and pedestals -- even if they were only riveted to the boiler like Samson and the Monster... better and more powerful solutions were workable.  But you still see plenty of ingenuity making chassis that would go around American curves without spreading American 'excuses' for rail and permanent way.

RME

[John WR]

I have to agree.  We need to look at the grasshoppers as they were seen in their own day rather than using presentism to judge them.  And techniques that were available in Britain were not necessarily available in the USA.  

[D&H653]

The first steam engine to run on rails in America was a Grasshopper, The Stourbrige Lion,  brought over from England by the D & H RR.

 

[John WR]

I always though of grasshoppers as having vertical boilers.  That is why I overlooked the Stourbridge Lion.

[Paul of Covington]

   I think the name "Grasshopper" was applied only to the Phineas Davis design of 1831 and was only used later.   He called the original one the "York."    I think with those big "legs" going up and down, it couldn't help but get that knickname.

   The first locomotive to run in this country was the Stourbrdge Lion, but it did not see much use as it was too heavy and stiff for our lightly-built roads.   There were a couple of other American locomotives before the Grasshopper, one by Peter Cooper that used gun barrels for flues (vertical Boiler), and the "Best Friend" on the South Carolina Railway Co.    In 1831 this company also had an articulated locomotive designed by Horatio Allen who had gone to England to order the Stourbridge Lion for the D&H and was the first man to operate it in this country.   His design was two engines back-to-back with a single powered axle driven by a single centered cylinder on each, a 2-2-2-2 configuration.

[John WR]

Paul of Covington

"Best Friend" on the South Carolina Railway Co.    In 1831

Paul,  I understand that the Best Friend of Charleston provided the first scheduled steam railroad service in the country.  Other steam locomotives came before it but none provided regular scheduled service.  The Baltimore and Ohio did provide regular scheduled service but with a horse drawn car, not a steam locomotive.  

John