James Boydell (died January 1860) was a British inventor of steam
traction engines
A traction engine is a steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engin ...
. His most significant invention was the first practical
track-laying vehicle, for which he received British
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s in August 1846 and February 1854.
Description
Boydell described his invention as "endless rails" or an "endless railway wheel", later variations became known as
Dreadnaught Wheels. In his system flat boards were attached to a wheel loosely at their centres. As the wheels revolved, they were capable of spreading the weight of an engine over the surface of the board. Boydell worked with the steam traction engine manufacturer
Charles Burrell & Sons
Charles Burrell & Sons were builders of steam traction engines, agricultural machinery, steam lorries and steam tram engines. The company were based in Thetford, Norfolk and operated from the St Nicholas works on Minstergate and St Nicholas St ...
to produce road haulage engines from 1856 that used his continuous track design.
[ Lane (1971), p. 23]
Boydell Glacier
The
United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee
The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) an ...
named
Boydell Glacier
Boydell Glacier () is a glacier on Trinity Peninsula in northern Graham Land. It is about long, flowing southeastward from Detroit Plateau to enter Sjögren Inlet in Prince Gustav Channel north of the terminus of Sjögren Glacier and west of ...
on
Trinity Peninsula
Trinity Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends northeastward for about 130 km (80 mi) to Cape Dubouzet from an imaginary line connecting Cape Kater on the north-west coast and Cape Longing on the sou ...
in northern
Graham Land
Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee an ...
,
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
, after him.
See also
*
Bramah Joseph Diplock
Bramah Joseph Diplock (27 April 1857 – 9 August 1918) was an English inventor who invented the pedrail wheel in 1899 and the pedrail chaintrack, a type of caterpillar track, in 1907.
Diplock was born in Chelsea, London to Thomas Bramah Dipl ...
*
Pedrail wheel
The pedrail wheel is a type of all-terrain wheel developed in the late 19th and early 20th century by Londoner Bramah Joseph Diplock. It consists of a series of "feet" (''pedes'' in Latin) connected to pivots on a wheel. As the wheel travels, ...
Notes
References
*
British inventors
British steam engine engineers
19th-century British people
1860 deaths
Year of birth unknown
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