John Blenkinsop (1783 to 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive. Born in Felling, County Durham, the son of a stonemason, he was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Barnes, a Northumberland coal viewer, and from 1808 became agent to Charles John Brandling, who owned collieries on his Middleton estate near Leeds. He designed and patented in 1811 a rack and pinion system that let a locomotive grip the track on a steep colliery line, the origin of the cog railway.
Facts
Defining ContributionProduced Salamanca in 1812, the first commercially successful steam locomotive, using a toothed rack rail system he patented 2 Connections
Pioneered
Source Wikipedia: Rack Railway
Worked In Mode
Source John Blenkinsop (Wikipedia)
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Sources
1. John Blenkinsop (Wikipedia)
Lead, dates
John Blenkinsop (1783-22 January 1831)
Worked In Mode: Rail Transport, Lead sentence
John Blenkinsop (1783-22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive.
In Group: Railway Engineers and Locomotive Designers, Lead
an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive
View the Source2. John Blenkinsop (SteamLocomotives.org)
Biography, opening sentence
was an English mining engineer and agent of the Middleton Colliery near Leeds.
Biography, Salamanca sentence
he produced the world's first commercially-successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, in 1812,
View the SourceWikipedia: Rack Railway
WikipediaPioneered: Cog Railway, LeadQuote, Pioneered: Cog Railway, Lead
This used a rack and pinion system designed and patented in 1811 by John Blenkinsop.
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