Ross Winans
Encyclopedia
Ross Winans was an American inventor, mechanicMechanic
A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...
, and builder of locomotives and railroad machinery. He is also noted for design of pioneering cigar-hulled ships. Winans, one of the United States' first multi-millionaires, was involved in politics and was a vehement states' rights
States' rights
States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government. It is often considered a loaded term because of its use in opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation...
advocate. His outspoken anti-federal stance as a member of the Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
legislature led to his arrest during the early period of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Winans was related to James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
through marriage (Whistler's brother George married Winans' daughter Julia).
Railroad Work
Ross Winans (1796–1877) came from a New Jersey family of horse breeders, but successfully made the transition to other forms of motive power. In 1841, he opened his own shop adjacent to the Baltimore and Ohio RailroadBaltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
's Mount Clare Shops
Mount Clare Shops
The Mount Clare Shops is the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States, located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1829. Mt. Clare was the site of many inventions and innovations in railroad technology. It is presently the site of the...
, with that railroad as his primary customer. He was a pioneer in the development of coal-burning locomotives. He was eccentric, and his locomotive business made him independently wealthy. His customer relations were simple—he built engines his way, and you bought them. Bored with the business, and having a design disagreement with the B&O, he closed his shops, which were later leased to Hayward & Bartlett. He went on to do significant work for the Czar’s railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow in Russia. All of the listed engines are type 0-8-0, Camel. They were all acquired from predecessor roads. Engine sales to C&P were recorded in 1863. James Millholland, the C&P Master Mechanic, was familiar with keeping these Camel engines running, and making improvements to them.
Winans set trends in locomotive and car design rather than followed them. His Crabs, Muddiggers, and Camels were used all over the fledging rail network of the eastern United States, from the 1840s until after the turn of the 20th century. The B&O was Winans' largest locomotive customer, with one hundred and forty locomotive deliveries going to that road. Winans had a disagreement with Mr. Hayes of the B&O, which delayed delivery of some engines into 1863. Winans' second best customer was the Philadelphia & Reading. These two customers represented 70 percent of his sales. Winans typically offered a thirty day trial period at the customer site.
About two hundred and sixty-seven engine deliveries to twenty-six American railroads by Winans are documented during the period 1843–1863. The Winans engine designs impressed a Russian delegation, and he was asked by the Czar to build the Imperial railroad from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Winans sent his two sons, as well as engineer George W. Whistler to Russia for several years for that project. Winans may have sold as much or more equipment in Russia as he did in the United States. Winans' son returned to build a Russian style estate in Baltimore, named Alexandrofsky and a country estate named Crimea. Alexandrofsky, located near what is now Hollins Market, was demolished to expand the housing stock of the city and Crimea was sold to the city, with money donated by Mr Leakin, to create a park called Leakin Park. The contents of Crimea were sold at auction. Luckily, twenty-three boxes of Winans papers and journals were donated to the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore for safekeeping. The City Park hosts a large outside model train club layout and the original house and canon embankment (his attempt to deter Northern troops from camping on his grounds) and water wheel still exist.
In 1828 he developed a friction wheel with outside bearings which established a distinctive pattern for railroad wheels for the next one hundred years or so. In the late 1820s also he became associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
, eventually entering their service as an engineer. One of his first and more important tasks was to help Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States...
build the Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a...
locomotive. By 1831 he was appointed assistant engineer of machinery on the B&O. He invented and patented an improvement in the construction of axles, or bearings on July 20. Also in this productive year he built the "Columbus", his first double-truck car, which he immediately patented, even though he was not the first individual to build one.
In 1835 Winans went into partnership with George Gillingham and in 1836 they succeeded to the 1834 lease of Phineas Davis
Phineas Davis
Phineas Davis was a well-known clockmaker and inventor who designed and built the first practical American coal-burning railroad locomotive....
and Israel Gardner of the B&O's company shops at Mt. Clare
B&O Railroad Museum
The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland, originally named the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum when it opened on July 4, 1953. It has been called one of the most significant collections of railroad treasures in the world and has the...
and continued the manufacture of locomotives and railroad machinery. "As far back perhaps as the year 1836, the firm of Gillingham and Winans, and, after the dissolution of that firm, I myself, down to 1841 or 1842, manufactured a Rail Road Wheel..." (letter #322).
Winans' next important development in locomotive design was an 8-wheel connected freight locomotive in the early 1840s. In 1843 Gillingham and Winans built their own shop to maximize their profits. The company's most notable product was the camelback locomotive
Camelback locomotive
A camelback locomotive is a type of steam locomotive with the driving cab placed in the middle, astride the boiler...
. Winans quit the locomotive business in 1857 after a dispute with Henry Tyson, then head of motive power for the B&O
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
, over the use of leading bogies on his locomotives. Winans generated a great many patents and was heavily engaged in litigation over ideas he claimed as his own.
The majority of the Winans engines were burden (freight) as opposed to passenger type. Engines delivered after June 1848 are almost all of the Camel 0-8-0 type, favored by Winans. The early models are sometimes referred to as the Baltimore engines. The Camel name derives from the first of class of that name, delivered to the B&O in 1848. All Camel engines were of the 0-8-0 wheel arrangement. Winans did not believe in the use of leading (pony) trucks.
The Camel engines were all low-speed, heavy haul units. The speed was limited to 10–15 miles per hour by the steam capacity of the boiler, and the lack of a pilot truck. However, at that speed, a single Camel could haul a 110 car train of loaded coal hoppers on the level. The most distinctive feature of the Camel was the cab atop the boiler. They had a large steam dome, slide valves, and used staybolts in the boiler. More than 100 iron tubes, each over 14 feet (4.3 m) long, were installed in the boiler.
A Camel was about 25 feet (7.6 m) long, with an 11 feet (3.4 m) wheelbase. There were three major variations: the short, medium, and long furnace models. The small units had 17" × 22" cylinders, and the others had 19" × 22" cylinders. The medium unit had about 23 square feet (2.1 m²) of grate area, expanded to more than 28 square feet (2.6 m²) in the large furnace model. The long furnace model had a firebox more than 8 feet (2.4 m) long, requiring lever-operated chutes for the fireman to feed the front of the fire. The fireman worked in the tender, as the firebox was behind the drivers. This design required that the drawbar passed beneath the firebox, and it typically heated to a cherry red color. Even after rebuilds with a more conventional cab design, the fireman worked in the tender. The standard Camel engine had 43" wheels, and was painted green.
Camel tenders were 8-wheeled, generally with brakes on the rear truck only. They held 5 tons of coal, and 8 tons (more than 2000 gallons) of water. Fully loaded, the tenders weighted 23 tons, only 4 tons less than the locomotive.
Ten Camels were delivered to the Baltimore & Susquehanna, including one “engine sold them from Maryland Mining Co., $8000 cash.” Ten sales are recorded to the Northern Central, in addition to the engines they acquired from the Baltimore & Susquehanna. Two units went to the Elmira & Canandaguia in New York, and were subsequently sold to the Cumberland & Pennsylvania. The P&R engine Susquehanna is described in detail in White's book (ref. 71). Two Winans engines went to the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain (H&BTM) Railroad in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1863. One unit blew up in 1868, with the loss of four lives. The H&BTM ran along the west side of Broad Top Mountain, best known for the narrow gauge line on its east side, the East Broad Top RR. The C&P interchanged with the H&BTM at State Line, Pennsylvania.
Most of the Winans Camel engines sold for around $10,000. Engine sales were expedited by syndicates of what we would now call investment bankers, such as Mr. Enoch Pratt. Banks did not yet have the accumulated capital to make loans for commercial purposes.
The records of the Philadelphia & Reading contain detailed information on Camel engine mileage’s and rebuildings. This line received a series of forty-eight deliveries from 1846 to 1855. By 1858, the P&R had racked up in excess of 3.5 million miles on its 44 engines, with the Camel fleet representing 20 percent of the P&R motive power roster. In 1865, 28 of 48 engines had not yet been rebuilt. By 1870, only 4 of the 48 were not yet rebuilt, but these four had accumulated almost one million miles of road service. The average service life before a rebuild was about thirteen and one-half years. Similar data for the B&O gives an average service life of 8.5 years before rebuilding. A total of 15 Camel rebuilds are recorded at the C&P shops in Mount Savage, from 1866 through 1875.
There are only three documented catastrophic failures in Camel engines. Non-catastrophic failures were more prevalent, but fewer were documented. Roberts (reference 48) gives the performance of a Winans Camel on the B&O’s 17 miles (27.4 km) grade, circa 1855, as 144 trailing tons. Dilts (reference 17) gives the performance of B&O engine 71 as 117 trailing tons up a 2.2 percent grade at 18 mi/h. Engine 71 was a Winans Camel, built in April 1851. The Winans engine could haul 40 empty coal hoppers up the Eckhart Branch, based on a tare weight of 3 tons for the Winans designed 6-wheel hoppers in use in 1854.
Civil War politics
During the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Winans was elected a member of the Maryland House of Delegates
Maryland House of Delegates
The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland, and is composed of 141 Delegates elected from 47 districts. The House chamber is located in the state capitol building on State Circle in Annapolis...
(the lower house of the state legislature) for the 1861 special sessions called to discuss the issue of secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
, and was arrested twice due to his anti-Federal activities and speeches. On the day before the Baltimore riot of 1861
Baltimore riot of 1861
The Baltimore riot of 1861 was an incident that took place on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, Maryland between Confederate sympathizers and members of the Massachusetts militia en route to Washington for Federal service...
, Winans moved a resolution "protest[ing] in the name of the people of Maryland against the garrisoning of Southern forts by militia drawn from the free States" and 'calling upon citizens of the state unite "to repel, if need be, any invader who may come to establish a military despotism over us." He was arrested shortly after the riot, was released, and elected again on April 24 as part of a States Rights ticket. Meanwhile, Winans' firm was reportedly preparing weapons and munitions for the defense of Baltimore against union troops. According to the American of April 23, "At the works of the Mssrs. Winans, the entire force is engaged in the making of pikes, and in casting balls of very description..." (Brown, 65). On May 14, one day after martial law was declared in Baltimore, Winans was again arrested while returning from a special session of the Maryland legislature in Frederick
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
(the session in which in which the Maryland legislature considered, but ultimately rejected, secession). He was quickly released, after signing a "parole" guaranteeing his loyalty to the federal government. Winans' arrest, by Benjamin Butler's
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
Federal troops, was one of the cases where Lincoln's
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
emergency suspension of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
was employed. Winans' brief incarceration was not legally challenged, as it was in the of Johns Merryman (Ex parte Merryman
Ex parte Merryman
Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 , is a well-known U.S. federal court case which arose out of the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus"...
).
Among the weapons bought from the five hundred thousand dollar fund that Baltimore Mayor Brown
George William Brown
George William Brown was the mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1860 to 1861.-Pratt Street Riot:Brown played an important role in controlling the Pratt Street Riot on April 19, 1861, at the onset of the American Civil War. After the Pratt Street Riot, some small skirmishes occurred throughout...
and Maryland Governor Hicks gathered "for the defense of the city" was the "Winans Steam Gun
Winans Steam Gun
In 1861, Ross Winans, a locomotive builder in Baltimore, Md., manufactured a steam-powered gun invented by a Charles S. Dickenson. Winans welcomed novelty, a trait he was known for in his locomotive designs, and he applied his enthusiasm for innovation when he produced the steam gun that came to...
," a steam-powered automatic gun mounted on an armored carriage. This experimental weapon was not designed by Winans, but was produced and sold by his iron works. Though this novelty ultimately had no military impact, it was widely discussed at the time and may have enhanced Winans' reputation as a threat to federal control of Maryland.
The Cigar Ship
After the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Winans and his son took their enterprise to Europe, and several boats were built in England and in St. Petersburg, Russia. None of these were put to full sea trials, though press reports survive of trips in the Solent and the English Channel. The boats themselves remained tied up in Southampton into the 1880s, but inspired no imitators.
Thomas Winans stayed for a time in Russia and contracted with the Czar's government to develop Russian railroads.
Other Interests
Winans took an interest in sanitary engineering and public health, publishing a number of pamphlets on sanitation, particularly in regard to water and ventilation. He lobbied for the development of a public water supply for Baltimore City.Winans was a pioneer in the development of low income housing building a housing project he called "workingmen's housing" in Baltimore. Today a public housing project remains on the site and is named Mount Winans.
He also published religious writings, including a pamphlet on religious tolerance and a collection of Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
sermons.
Sources
- Brown, George William,Baltimore and the Nineteenth of April, 1861; A Study of the War, Johns Hopkins University, 1887 (from Library of Congress)
- Butler, Benjamin F., and Jessie Ames Marshall. Private and Official Correspondence of Gen.Benjamin F. Butler, during the Period of the Civil War .. Norwood, Mass.: The Plimpton press, 1917. (from Google Books)
- Crisafulli, Michael,The Winans Cigar Ships.
- Maryland. General Assembly. House of Delegates. Committee on Federal Relations. Report of the Committee on Federal Relations in Regard to the Calling of a Sovereign Convention. Frederick, Md.: E.S. Riley, printer, 1861.
- Maryland. General Assembly. Protest of the General Assembly Against the Illegal Arrest and Imprisonment by the Federal Government of Citizens of Maryland. Frederick: B.H. Richardson, printer, 1861.
- Mitchell, Charles W. Maryland Voices of the Civil War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
- Parker, Theodore, and Ross Winans. Gleanings from Theodore Parker's Works on Speculative Theism. Baltimore, Md: John P. Des Forges,
- Winans, Ross. Collection of Articles and Correspondence in Relation to Baltimore Harbor Nuisance. Baltimore: John P. Des Forges, 1875.
- ---. Gleanings from various Authors on Sanitary Matters. Selected, Prepared and Published by Ross Winans. Collection of Articles and Correspondence in Relation to Baltimore Harbor Nuisance. Baltimore: John P. Des Forges, 1875.
- ---. The Jones' Falls Question:Hygiene and Sanitary Matters. Baltimore: J. P. Des Forges, 1872.
- ---. Minority Report of W., One of the Water Commissioners Appointed ... to Examine the Sources from which a Supply of Pure Water may be obtained for the City of Baltimore. Baltimore:, 1853.
- ---.Objections to Yielding to Northerners the Control of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, on which Depends the Development of the Farms, Mines, Manufacturers and Trade of the State of Maryland. Baltimore:, 1860.
- ---. Ventilation and Other Requisites to a Healthy and Comfortable Dwelling:. Baltimore: J. P. Des Forges, 1871.
External links
- Ross Winans' Letterbook, 1850-51 Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.