Rev Robert Joseph Barlow invents a carriage spring, 1836

I came across this fascinating report quite by accident.  It turns out that the Rev Robert Joseph Barlow of Hutton Rudby (c1804-78) invented a safety spring to make travelling by carriage (and this seems to mean, above all, railway carriages) safer and more comfortable.

His invention was presented to the Whitby Lit & Phil by Dr George Merryweather of Whitby, who owned Linden Grove (now Linden Grange), the house in which Mr Barlow lived.  He was the inventor himself of the celebrated Tempest Prognosticator, a leech-powered barometer.  A model of it may be seen in Whitby Museum.

The Rev George Young referred to is the celebrated historian (a short biography can be found here here on the Whitby Museum website).

The surprising story of Robert Barlow's brother, James Barlow Hoy, and his rise to unexpected good fortune and a seat in the House of Commons can be found in my book Remarkable, but still True: the story of the Revd R J Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of the cholera.  His life history begins here at Chapter 7 and the account of his sudden death in an accident while shooting in the Pyrenees is here in Chapter 16.

The Whitby & Pickering Railway was one of the first railways in Yorkshire and George Stephenson was the engineer.  When it opened in 1836 – when it tried out Mr Barlow's spring – it was a single-track horse-worked railway.  Now it is the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and is not to be missed by any visitor to the moors who values heritage steam locomotives and diesel engines, beautiful scenery, nostalgic tearooms, etc, etc.

Hampshire Advertiser, 1 October 1836 

Newly Invented Safety Spring for Carriages 

We take from the Yorkshire Gazette, the following notice of a new Spring for Carriages, the invention of the Rev R J Barlow, brother of our town member, J Barlow Hoy, esq.:- 

A general meeting of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society was held at the Whitby Museum, on Monday, September 12, for the purpose of receiving a communication from the Rev R J Barlow, of Linden Grove near Stokesley, on his newly invented patent safety springs for carriages.   

A respectable company of ladies and gentlemen having assembled, John Frankland, esq. was called to the chair, and the object of the meeting was stated by the Rev George Young, A.M. one of the secretaries.  Dr Merryweather, through whom the communication was received, then addressed the company as follows:- 

Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I have the pleasure this day of bringing before your notice an original paper by the Rev Mr Barlow, communicating an invention which, when properly understood and duly appreciated, will, in my humble opinion, rank among the most beneficial and ingenious of modern times.  When I say ingenious, I particularly allude to the simplicity and beauty of the contrivance, and when I say beneficial, I mean not only to express my sense of the increased convenience and comfort of carriages, but also with the great comparative security of life and property, by which travelling will be accomplished when these springs shall have become universal ...

After an introduction full of praise for the invention and its usefulness for the future, Dr Merryweather read Mr Barlow's paper.  The company then examined the "ingenious models" he had provided and they "admired the simplicity and excellence of the invention."

The Revd Young concluded by praising the Spring, which would promote ease and convenience in travelling and "prevent accidents and preserve life"

The speed with which locomotive carriages are sometimes propelled on railroads is truly astonishing, and every practicable plan for rendering these and other carriages safe, as well as commodious, must be of incalculable value

The Spring had been tested by Mr Barlow himself and by the Directors of the Whitby and Pickering Railway, 

who have a coach constructed on the new principle, fully answering the expectations that were formed.  It must have cost the Rev Gentleman much study and many trials to bring his invention to this state of maturity

Mr Young concluded his speech of thanks by suggesting that Mr Barlow be elected an honorary member of the Society, and this was done.

Accidents at the Stokesley Gas Works, 1846 & 1866

I have found two instances of accidents with the Stokesley Gas Works; one is dramatic and potentially tragic while the other must have caused fury amongst fishermen. 

The first gasometer in Stokesley is said to have been erected near the New Mill of Messrs Mease & Blacket on Levenside (now the premises of Millbry Hill); I think a later gas works was built elsewhere in the town.  Until the 1970s gas was made from coal, so advertisements like this can be found:

Durham Chronicle, 18 September 1863 

TO COAL-OWNERS

THE STOKESLEY GAS COMPANY are desirous of receiving TENDERS for the Supply of good GAS COAL, to be delivered at the STOKESLEY STATION.  Tenders to be sent on or before the 30th day of SEPTEMBER, 1863, to the SECRETARY, at Stokesley.

In September 1846 the Agricultural Show at Stokesley was going well.  It had celebrated its 13th birthday with a "brilliant meeting of its members and friends and by a most excellent exhibition of horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, on Friday, the 11th inst." and beautiful weather promised another successful day:

Yorkshire Gazette, 19 September 1846 

The Cleveland District Agricultural Show 

We understand that the entries for the present show were, on the whole, more numerous than those of the preceding year.  

We believe that the cattle and sheep did not occupy so great a space of ground in the show field, which, as in 1844, was kindly lent for the use of the society, by Col. Hildyard; but in the horses – the beautiful Cleveland bays – so celebrated in our own country and so great favourites with the foreigners who attend our fairs, – there was a manifest improvement, both as regards quality and quantity.  

The same remark applies to the pigs, to the implements, and the poultry.  The latter class combined great beauty and variety, and attracted the especial attention of a large and fashionable assembly of ladies.  We noticed that the show of pigeons was much greater than in former years, and it will be seen that premiums have this year been awarded to the exhibitors of rabbits.  We heard that encouragement to the breeding of rabbits had been objected to by some, principally on the ground that it would lead to trespassing in the turnip and clover fields, and perhaps there may be something in this suggestion; nevertheless we think it may be fairly urged that the interest which will be excited among the rising generation in these exhibitions will sufficiently counterbalance if not outweigh any small inconvenience that may arise in this respect ... 

The day throughout was beautifully fine, and the harvest being all but at an end in this district, the concourse of visitors to the town of Stokesley was immense.  We suppose that at one part of the day there could not be less than from two to three thousand persons in the show field.

"The only drawbacks to the complete success of the meeting" were the unavoidable absence of the year's president Lord Feversham and "the occurrence of an accident, the consequences of which might have been most frightful."

The committee had decided that the dining hall should be lighted with gas – but 

about noon the town was alarmed by two most tremendous reports, resembling those of the discharge of heavy cannon

There had been an explosion at the Stokesley gas works.

It appears that Mr Simpson, the manager, and his son, two persons of the name of Carter, from Sunderland, who had been engaged in fixing the gasometer, which has recently been removed, two labourers named Gray and Caldwell, and some other persons who had been brought to the spot through feelings of curiosity, were mounted upon the top of the gasometer.  The object of those who had business there was either to try the amount of pressure, or to discover if there was any foul air in the tank.  We were told both, but whichever was the object matters not to our purpose, for the result would not have been different.  

In order to ascertain one or both of these facts, a lighted match was applied to a hole in the top of the gasometer, and a jet of light was, of course, immediately produced.  When the necessary observation had been made, one of the men, instead of blowing the flame out, suddenly placed his finger over the hole, and thus forced the flame within the gasometer.  

An instantaneous explosion was the consequence, the gasometer being forced completely out of its place, and the parties being thrown from the top in all directions.  They were all more or less injured, and Caldwell so much so that when we left Stokesley on Saturday, we were told that his recovery was very doubtful.  He was much hurt about the head and back.

I don't know what happened in the end to poor Mr Caldwell, but I haven't found an entry in the deaths registers for anyone of that name in Stokesley for the period from the accident to the end of 1847.

The second incident spared human life but caused enormous damage to fish:

Teesdale Mercury, 23 May 1866 

Wholesale Destruction of Fish 

The river Leven has long been noted as an excellent trout water, but we regret to learn that from Stokesley to where the Leven falls into the Tees, below Yarm, the fish have been totally destroyed.  The water in the gasometer at Stokesley being pumped, the tank having to be emptied, the water through which the gas was purified for years past, about 350 tons, was allowed to flow into the river.  The consequence has been that all the fish are killed from Stokesley to the end of the Leven.  Large quantities of trout and other fish were taken out of the water dead, and dying, on Tuesday last.

This page from the website of the National Gas Museum explains how gas was made from coal in the days before gas from the North Sea, and this one explains how gas was stored in 'gasometers'.