Salamanca (locomotive)

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Salamanca was the first commercially successful steam locomotive, built in 1812 by Matthew Murray of Holbeck, for the edge railed Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds.[1] It was the first to have two cylinders. It was named after the Duke of Wellington's victory at the battle of Salamanca which was fought that same year.

Salamanca was also the first rack and pinion locomotive, using John Blenkinsop's patented design for rack propulsion. A single rack ran outside the narrow gauge tracks and was engaged by a large cog wheel on the left side of the locomotive. The cog wheel was driven by twin cylinders embedded into the top of the centre-flue boiler. The class was described as having two 8"x20" cylinders, driving the wheels through cranks. The piston crossheads worked in guides, rather than being controlled by parallel motion like the majority of early locomotives. The engines saw up to twenty years of service.[2]

Four such locomotives were built for the railway. Salamanca was destroyed six years later, when its boiler exploded. According to George Stephenson, giving evidence to a committee of Parliament, the driver had tampered with the boiler safety valve,[3] a fate it shared with the boiler explosion for comparable reasons in the United States, of the American Best Friend of Charleston locomotive in 1831.

Salamanca is probably the locomotive referred to in the September 1814 edition of Annals of Philosophy: "Some time ago a steam-engine was mounted upon wheels at Leeds, and made to move along a rail road by means of a rack wheel, dragging after it a number of waggons loaded with coals." The item continues to mention a rack locomotive about a mile north of Newcastle (Blücher at Killingworth) and one without a rack wheel (probably Puffing Billy at Wylam).[4]

VIII CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE SOLDADURA
La Asociación Colombiana de Soldaduras y Ensayos No Destructivos ACOSEND se enorgullece en presentar su VIII Congreso Internacional ACOSEND, que tendrá lugar en forma simultánea con la VI COPAEND en Cartagena, Colombia, del 12 al 14 de agosto de 2015, donde se darán a conocer los avances más recientes en el área de la soldadura. Espacio para el encuentro de expertos para fomentar la cooperación nacional e internacional, el desarrollo científico y tecnológico del sector en Colombia.
Este evento es una continuación del trabajo realizado por ACOSEND a lo largo de 24 años que satisface su misión de promover y fomentar mediante la cooperación nacional e internacional, el desarrollo científico y tecnológico de la soldadura.

http://www.viiicongresoacosend.org/