Matthew Murray
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
and machine tool
Machine tool
A machine tool is a machine, typically powered other than by human muscle , used to make manufactured parts in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation...
manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
, the twin cylinder Salamanca
The Salamanca
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. It was the first to have two cylinders...
in 1812. He was an innovative designer in many fields, including steam engines, machine tools and machinery for the textile industry.
Early years
Little is known about Matthew Murray’s early years. He was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1765. He left school at fourteen and was apprenticed to be either a blacksmithBlacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
or a whitesmith
Whitesmith
A whitesmith is a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals such as tin and pewter. While blacksmiths work mostly with hot metal, whitesmiths do the majority of their work on cold metal .The term is also applied to metalworkers who do only finishing work – such as filing or polishing –...
. In 1785, when he concluded his apprenticeship, he married Mary Thompson (1764-1836) of Whickham
Whickham
Whickham is a town in North East England, four miles south west of Newcastle upon Tyne and four and a half miles west of Gateshead. Whickham is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Its postal address is Whickham, Newcastle upon Tyne. Whickham is situated on high ground overlooking the...
, County Durham. The following year he moved to Stockton
Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...
and began work as a journeyman mechanic at the flax mill
Flax mill
Flax mills are mills concerned with the manufacture of flax. The earliest mills were ones for spinning yarn for the linen industry.John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse , both of Darlington developed the process from Richard Arkwright's water frame, and patented it in 1787...
of John Kendrew
John Kendrew
Sir John Cowdery Kendrew, CBE, FRS was an English biochemist and crystallographer who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz; their group in the Cavendish Laboratory investigated the structure of heme-containing proteins.-Biography:He was born in Oxford, son of Wilford George...
in Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
, where the mechanical spinning of flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
had been invented.
Murray and his wife, Mary, had 3 daughters and a son, also called Matthew.
Leeds
In 1789, due to a lack of trade in the Darlington flax mills, Murray and his family moved to LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
to work for John Marshall, who was a prominent flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
manufacturer. Murray maintained the machinery for Marshall's mills at Adel
Adel, Leeds
Adel is a suburb in North Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Cookridge, Holt Park, Weetwood and Alwoodley. To the north are the villages of Arthington and Bramhope and the market town of Otley...
, and made improvements that pleased his employer. At this stage it seems that Murray was the chief engineer in the mill, and when Marshall decided to set up a new mill at Holbeck
Holbeck
Holbeck is a district in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The district begins on the southern edge of the Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 Leeds postcode area. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since...
in 1791, Murray was in charge of the installation. The installation included new flax-spinning machines of his own design, which Murray patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed in 1790. In 1793 Murray took out a second patent on a design for “Instruments and Machines for Spinning Fibrous Materials”. His patent included a carding
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
engine and a spinning machine that introduced the new technique of “wet spinning” flax, which revolutionised the flax trade.
Fenton, Murray and Wood
Industry in the Leeds area was developing fast and it became apparent that there was an opportunity for a firm of general engineers and millwrights to set up. Therefore, in 1795, Murray went into partnership with David Wood (1761-1820) and set up a factory at Mill Green, HolbeckHolbeck
Holbeck is a district in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The district begins on the southern edge of the Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 Leeds postcode area. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since...
. There were several mills in the vicinity and the new firm supplied machinery to them. The firm was so successful that in 1797 it moved to larger premises at Water Lane, Holbeck. The firm welcomed two new partners at this point; James Fenton (previously Marshall's partner) and William Lister (a millwright of Bramley, Leeds
Bramley, Leeds
Bramley is a district in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is an old industrial area and home to a lot of 19th century architecture alongside 20th century council housing in the east and private suburban housing to the west. It has its own railway station which is on the Caldervale and...
). The firm became known as Fenton, Murray and Wood
Fenton, Murray and Jackson
Fenton, Murray and Jackson was an engineering company at the Round Foundry off Water Lane in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-Fenton, Murray and Wood:...
. Murray was the technical innovator and in charge of obtaining orders; Wood was in charge of day to day running of the works; Fenton was the accountant.
Steam engine manufacture
Although the firm still served the textile industry, Murray began to consider how the design of steam engines could be improved. He wanted to make them simpler, lighter, and more compact. He also wanted the steam engine to be a self-contained unit that could readily be assembled on site with pre-determined accuracy. Many existing engines suffered from faulty assembly, which took much effort to correct. One problem that Murray faced was that James PickardJames Pickard
James Pickard was an English inventor. He modified the Newcomen engine in a manner that it could deliver a rotary motion. His solution, which he patented in 1780, involved the combined use of a crank and a flywheel....
had already patented the crank and flywheel method of converting linear motion to circular motion. Murray ingeniously got round this difficulty by introducing a hypocycloidal gear. This consisted of a large fixed ring with internal teeth. Around the inside of this ring a smaller gear wheel, with half the outer one’s diameter, would roll driven by the piston rod of the steam engine, which was attached to the gear’s rim. As the piston rod moved backwards and forwards in a straight line, its linear motion would be converted into circular motion by the gear wheel. The gear wheel’s bearing was attached to a crank on the flywheel shaft. When he used the hypocycloidal gear he was able to build engines that were more compact and lightweight than previous ones. However, Murray ceased to use this type of motion as soon as Pickard’s patent expired.
In 1799 William Murdoch
William Murdoch
William Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
, who worked for the firm of Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
, invented a new type of steam valve, called the D slide valve
D slide valve
The slide valve is a rectilinear valve used to control the admission of steam into, and emission of exhaust from, the cylinder of a steam engine.-Use:...
. This, in effect, slid backwards and forwards admitting steam to one end of the cylinder then the other. Matthew Murray improved the working of these valves by driving them with an eccentric gear attached to the rotating shaft of the engine.
Murray also patented an automatic damper that controlled the furnace draft depending on the boiler pressure, and he designed a mechanical hopper that automatically fed fuel to the firebox. Murray was the first to adopt the placing of the piston in a horizontal position in the steam engine. He expected very high standards of workmanship from his employees, and the result was that Fenton, Murray and Wood produced machinery of a very high precision. He designed a special planing machine
Planer (metalworking)
A planer is a type of metalworking machine tool that uses linear relative motion between the workpiece and a single-point cutting tool to machine a linear toolpath. Its cut is analogous to that of a lathe, except that it is linear instead of helical...
for planing the faces of the slide valves. Apparently this machine was kept in a locked room, to which only certain employees were allowed access.
The Round Foundry
As a result of the high quality of his steam engines, sales increased a great deal and it became apparent that a new engine assembly shop was required. Murray designed this himself, and produced a huge three-storeyed circular building known as the Round FoundryRound Foundry
The Round Foundry is a former engineering works off Water Lane in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The Round Foundry was built in 1795–1797 by a partnership of James Fenton, Matthew Murray, David Wood and the financier William Lister, trading as Fenton, Murray and Wood,...
. This contained a centrally mounted steam engine to power all of the machines in the building. Murray also built a house for himself adjoining the works. The design of this was pioneering, as each room was heated by steam pipes, so that it became known locally as Steam Hall.
Hostility of Boulton and Watt
The success that Fenton, Murray and Wood enjoyed because of the high quality of their workmanship attracted the hostility of competitors, Boulton and WattBoulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
. The latter firm sent employees William Murdoch
William Murdoch
William Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
and Abraham Storey to visit Murray, ostensibly on a courtesy visit, but in reality to spy on his production methods. Murray, rather foolishly, welcomed them, and showed them everything. On their return they informed their employers that Murray’s casting work and forging work were much superior to their own, and efforts were made to adopt many of Murray’s production methods. There was also an attempt by the firm of Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
to obtain information from an employee of Fenton, Murray and Wood by bribery. Finally, James Watt jnr purchased land adjacent to the workshop in an attempt to prevent the firm from expanding.
Boulton and Watt successfully challenged two of Murray's patents. Murray's patent of 1801, for improved air pumps and other innovations, and of 1802, for a self-contained compact engine with a new type of slide valve, were contested and overturned. In both cases, Murray had made the mistake of including too many improvements together in the same patent. This meant that if any one improvement were found to have infringed a copyright, the whole patent would be invalidated.
Despite the manoeuvrings of Boulton and Watt, the firm of Fenton, Murray and Wood became serious rivals to them, attracting many orders.
Middleton Railway
.jpg)
John Blenkinsop
John Blenkinsop was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive....
, manager of Brandling's
Brandling of Newcastle
The Brandlings of Newcastle were a wealthy family of merchants and land and coal owners in Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumberland.-Early Brandlings:...
Middleton Colliery, near Leeds, with the first twin-cylinder steam locomotive (Salamanca
The Salamanca
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. It was the first to have two cylinders...
) in 1812. This was the first commercially successful steam locomotive. Murray paid Trevithick a royalty for the use of his design but substantially improved upon it, using two cylinders rather than one to give a smoother drive. Because it was thought that the iron wheels would not have sufficient grip on smooth iron rails when pulling a full load, it was decided to have a toothed wheel driven by connecting rods, with the wheel meshing with a toothed rack attached to the track. This was the first rack railway
Rack railway
A rack-and-pinion railway is a railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail...
, and had a gauge of 4 ft 1½ ins. Blenkinsop patented the rack drive in 1811, but it was subsequently found that iron wheels and smooth rails could generate enough friction without the need for a rack drive. Salamanca was so successful that Murray made three more models, Prince Regent, Willington and Marquis Wellington. Willington was subsequently sold to Brandling's Kenton and Coxlodge colliery to be used on Tyneside
Tyneside
Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
. There it was seen by George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
who modelled his own locomotive Blücher
Blücher (locomotive)
Blücher was an early railway locomotive built in 1814 by George Stephenson for Killingworth Colliery. It was the first of a series of locomotives that he designed in the period 1814-16 which established his reputation as an engine designer and laid the foundations for his subsequent pivotal role in...
on it, minus the rack drive.
However after two of the locomotives had exploded, killing their drivers and a number of onlookers, Middleton colliery reverted to horse haulage. The remaining locomotive was preserved for many years at Broom Pit but fell victim to a scrap metal drive.
Marine engines
In 1811 the firm made a TrevithickTrevithick
Trevithick is a surname, and may refer to:* Francis Trevithick , one of the first locomotive engineers of the London and North Western Railway* Paul Trevithick , American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur...
-pattern high-pressure steam engine for John Wright, a Quaker of Yarmouth. The engine was fitted to the paddle steamer l'Actif, running out of Yarmouth. The ship was a captured privateer that had been purchased from the government. Paddle wheels were fitted to it and driven by the new engine. The ship was renamed “Experiment” and the engine was very successful, eventually being transferred to another boat, “The Courier”.
In 1816 Francis B. Ogden, the United States Consul in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
received two large twin-cylinder marine steam engines from Murray’s firm. Ogden then patented the design as his own in America. It was widely copied there and used to propel the Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
paddle steamers.
Textile innovations
Murray made important improvements to the machinery for heckling and spinning flax. Heckling was the preparation of flax for spinning by splitting and straightening the flax fibres. Murray's heckling machine gained him the gold medal of the Royal Society of ArtsRoyal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
in 1809. At the time when these inventions were made the flax trade was on the point of expiring, the spinners being unable to produce yarn to a profit. The effect of his inventions was to reduce the cost of production, and improve the quality of the manufacture, thus establishing the British linen trade on a solid foundation. The production of flax-machinery became an important branch of manufacture at Leeds, large quantities being made for use at home as well as for exportation, giving employment to an increasing number of highly skilled mechanics.
Hydraulic presses
In 1814 Murray patented a hydraulic press for baling cloth, in which the upper and lower tables approached each other simultaneously. He improved upon the hydraulic presses invented by Joseph BramahJoseph Bramah
Joseph Bramah , born Stainborough Lane Farm, Wentworth, Yorkshire, England, was an inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press...
, and in 1825 designed a huge press for testing chain cables. His press, built for the Navy Board
Navy Board
The Navy Board is today the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the British Royal Navy. Its composition is identical to that of the Admiralty Board of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom, except that it does not include any of Her Majesty's Ministers.From 1546 to 1831, the Navy...
, was 34 ft long and could exert a force of 1,000 tons. The press was completed just before Murray’s death.
Death
Matthew Murray died on 20 February 1826, at the age of sixty. He was buried in St. Matthew's Churchyard, HolbeckHolbeck
Holbeck is a district in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The district begins on the southern edge of the Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 Leeds postcode area. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since...
. His tomb was surmounted by a cast iron obelisk made at the Round Foundry. His firm survived until 1843. Several prominent engineers were trained there, including Benjamin Hick
Benjamin Hick
Benjamin Hick was a mechanical engineer. He was born at Leeds in 1790 and trained at Fenton, Murray and Wood, the well known makers of steam engines, textile machines and other machinery. In 1810 Hick moved to Bolton as manager of Rothwell's Union Foundry...
, Charles Todd
Kitson & Co.
Kitson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-Early history:The company started as James Kitson at the Airedale Foundry, off Pearson Street, Hunslet in 1835 with Charles Todd as a partner...
and David Joy
Joy Valve Gear
Joy valve gear is a type of locomotive valve gear, patented in 1870, where the movement is derived from a vertical link connected to the connecting rod. The vertical movement is translated into the horizontal movement required by the valve spindle by a die block moving in a slide which can be...
.
It is a testament to the good design and workmanship that went into his steam engines, that several of his big mill engines ran for over eighty years, and one of them, installed second-hand at the locomotive repair works at King’s Cross, ran for over a century.
Murray’s only son served an apprenticeship at the Round Foundry and then went to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where he founded an engineering business in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.