HEDLEY'S LOCOMOTIVE "PUFFING BILLY" 1813

(now in the South Kensington Museum)

    This Engine was constructed at Wylam, by Wm. Hedley, Mechanical Engineer for Mr. Blackitt, the proprietor of the Wylam Colliery near New Castle on Tyre and was set to work in 1813.

     This Engine had a wrought iron boiler with a return flue the chimney being placed at the same end at the fire door.

     Two vertical cylinders were employed; the pistons and rods being connected to beams centered at each end, an arrangement known as the "grasshopper". There were four wheels of equal diameter to which the motion of the pistons was communicated by toothed gearing.