Traction Engines (3 results)

Large square 4to photograph album from the 1950s with over 100 photographs/postcards of traction engines with extra photos - some in colour loosely inseted inside film fronted sleeve. Please contact us for more details.

The scrapbook is landscape 8vo (28 x 18.5 cm), and contains 28 leaves of brown paper tied together with ribbon, on which, together with the inside of the back cover, the images (dating from between 1860 and 1928) are laid down. The scrapbook lacks the front cover, and its leaves are worn, but the images are in good overall condition, with occasional wear and creasing. Ranging in size from 14.5 x 11 cm ('Fowler 8/c Traction About 1875. Jointed Horn Plates.') to 7.5 x 5.5 cm ('S/c Traction (About 1875-80)'. An impressive collection, formed by an engineer or serious enthusiast, with most of the photographs (which form the majority of the images) apparently having been made from engineering journals and catalogues, while others are clearly original photographs of engines in situ. Also present are a number of original engravings taken from the same sources. Almost all items captioned. For example, on the first page: 'CPD. Road Roller. Armstrong-Whitworth Ltd. Scotswood, Newcastle-on-Tyne' and 'John Allen & Sons Ltd. Cowley, Oxford'. Other examples include '1895 S/c Spring Mounted Road Loco. John Fowler & co. Leeds Ltd.' and 'Aveling & Porter 1871. DNP "Steam Sapper" drawing ARMSTRONG Breech Loadg Siege gun 95 cwts.' The blueprint (22.5 x 15 cm) is for an '8 H. P. Traction Engine | Barrows & Stewart. Engineers. LANBURY. Oxon. 1879.' See images; others on request.

Publisher's original plain russet card wrap covers [soft back] secured with a cord tie. Landscape format 11'' x 15''. Contains 32 pages of text with 27 plates of exploded monochrome illustrations with detailed part numbers, and where necessary, further description. Not in the best of condition although we have had it professionally and sympathetically repaired. Old damp stain to the inside margin and with small losses of paper where the cord tie comes through the paper, repaired tears to the edges of the covers. John Fowler was an agricultural engineer and inventor who was born in Wiltshire. He worked on the mechanization of agriculture and was credited with the invention of steam driven ploughing engines. He died 4 December 1864, following a hunting accident. After his death, John Fowler & Co., was then continued by Robert Fowler and Robert Eddison. In 1886 the limited company of John Fowler & Co., (Leeds) Ltd., was formed. It merged with Marshall, Sons & Co., Ltd., of Gainsborough in 1947 to form Marshall-Fowler Ltd. Although not well known for them, Fowler also built a small number (117 has been claimed) of steam wagons. These were vertical-boilered, with an unusual single-crank cross-compound vee-twin engine. At least one was preserved, as part of the Tom Varley collection. During the Second World War, the Hunslet factory also produced Matilda, Cromwell, and Centaur tanks for the Army. Production finally ceased in early 1974. Member of the P.B.F.A. TRACTION STEAM ENGINES.