3-011-450 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Stephenson's locomotive manufactory at Newcastle-On-Tyne: the steam-hammer, 1864. '...night view of that portion of the forging department containing the Nasmyth steam-hammers, which are used to hammer into shape the largest portions of the engine, such as the crank-axles. The forging of large masses of iron was a great difficulty with the older mechanics, and numberless contrivances were adopted to avoid the necessity of using them. Now the most colossal masses of metal are brought to the desired shape with as much ease as fifty years ago a smith would have made a forging of a few pounds weight. The construction of the locomotive boilers, as may be expected, is a large and important division of the manufactory. Here the eternal din of "closing rivets up" is constantly maintained. Material and workmanship are here even more important than in the manufactories for the wheels. The boilers are constructed of plates of the finest iron...riveted together, and...subjected to the most severe tests. For the quality of this portion of the engine the Stephenson manufactory has always borne the highest character - the principle upon which it is constructed as well as its form having been given to it by the celebrated founder of the establishment'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.