John Haswell (20 March 1812 – 8 June 1897) was a Scottish engineer and locomotive designer. He was born on 20 March 1812 in Lancefield, Glasgow,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, studied at ''

Anderson's University The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

'' in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and worked for 22 years in the shipbuilding office of ''

William Fairbairn Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third pre ...

& Co''. In 1837 at the prompting of Matthias Schönerer, who was also heavily involved in the Budweis–

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

– Gmunden

wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway ...

, he drew up plans for the repair shop of the Wien-Raaber railway (later

Lokomotivfabrik der StEG In 1839 the Lokomotivfabrik der StEG became the first Austrian locomotive works to be founded and it produced many influential locomotive designs. The factory was built in 1839 by the Vienna-Raab Railway between the Vienna Südbahnhof and Vienn ...

), and in 1839 became entrusted with carrying them out, along with the mechanical engineer ''Kraft''. When the workshop had been built, the first of its kind in Austria, he took over its management and oversaw, not just repair work, but also the construction of new rolling stock for the railway. ''Inter alia'' he was responsible for: * the first six-coupled steam locomotive in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

''FAHRAFELD'' (1846) * participating in the Semmering competition in 1851 with the locomotive ''VINDOBONA'', a model for the subsequent Engerth mountain locomotives * the first eight-coupled, steam locomotive in Austria ''WIEN–RAAB'' (1855), the pattern for heavy freight locomotives on the continent for many years * the steam brake first used on the ''STEYERDORF'' (1861) * the first four-cylinder locomotive, the ''DUPLEX'' (1861) * the hydraulic forging press (1862), that first enabled the forging of heavy machine components in dies (today at the Vienna Museum of Technology) * Corrugated iron

firebox Firebox may refer to: *Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine *Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted *Firebox Records Firebox Records was a Finnish record label based in S ...

(1872) In 1882 Haswell resigned from his position. He died on 8 June 1897 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and rests in a grave dedicated to his honour at the

Döbling Cemetery The Döbling Cemetery (Döblinger Friedhof) is a cemetery in the 19th district of Döbling in Vienna, Austria. Location The cemetery lies in the south of Döbling on the border to Währing in the Katastralgemeinde of Oberdöbling, in the Hartä ...

(Group 10, number 1) in Vienna.

References

Sources

Karl Gölsdorf Karl Gölsdorf (8 June 1861 – 18 March 1916) was an Austrian engineer and locomotive designer. Early life Karl Gölsdorf was born on 8 June 1861 in Vienna, the son of Louis Adolf Gölsdorf. Even as a schoolboy he was introduced to locomotive ...

: ''Lokomotivbau in Alt-Österreich 1837–1918''. Verlag Slezak, Wien 1978, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Haswell, John Austrian railway mechanical engineers British emigrants to Austria Engineers from Glasgow Engineers from Vienna 1812 births 1897 deaths

See also

References

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