William
Hedley
was born at Newburn, near Newcastle-on-Tyne
on 13th July, 1779. He became a manager at Walbottle
Colliery before he was twenty-two. He afterwards held the same position
at Wylam Colliery. Christopher
Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery, had been interested in using
locomotives for sometime. In 1804 he had employed Richard
Trevithick to produce a locomotive that would replace the use
of horse-drawn coal wagons. The Wylam Dilly
locomotive was built, but weighing five tons, it was too heavy for
Blackett's wooden wagonway.
In 1808
Christopher Blackett replaced his wooden rails with cast-iron plate-rails.
Soon afterwards he asked Hedley, his colliery manager, to try and
produce a steam locomotives. Hedley was helped in his task by two
talented craftsman, Jonathan Foster, an enginewright, and Timothy
Hackworth, a blacksmith. Hedley believed that if the wheels of
the locomotive were coupled, the weight of a locomotive alone would
provide sufficient adhesion, even where smooth wheels ran on smooth
rails, to haul a train of loaded wagons. Hedley's theory was supported
by his experiments and in 1813 he obtained a patent for his smooth
rail system. Soon afterwards smooth rails were laid down at Wylam.
Hedley now turned his attention to designing and making a reliable
locomotive. By 1814 he produced a locomotive that had two vertical
cylinders outside the boiler. Piston rods extended upwards to pivotted
beams, which were in turn connected by rods to a crankshaft beneath
the frames, from which gears drove and also coupled the wheels. Originally
carried on four wheels, the 8 ton locomotives were two heavy for the
plate rails, and so to spread the weight on the templates, they were
redesigned with eight wheels. Two of the locomotives produced by William
Hedley, Jonathan Foster and
Timothy Hackworth, were still working
at Wylam Colliery in 1860. This included Puffing
Billy and Wylam
Dilly.
In 1828 Hedley began renting the South Moor Colliery. While there
he developed a steam-powered machine that improved the system of pumping
water out of the mine. This steam-pump was soon used in collieries
all over the North of England. William
Hedley died
at Burnhopeside Hall, near Durham, on 9th January, 1843.
William Hedley's Wylam Dilly
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