I was very surprised to read accounts of traction engines on Jamaica's roads in the middle of the 19th century - they did not fit at all with my picture of the island at that period!
'The traction engine has been introduced into Jamaica and two of these engines manufactured to order are now employed in the transit of produce from the estates to Kingston'
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain) February 5, 1864 |
. . . . and the House of Assembly passed a law authorizing, and indeed encouraging, their use:
Sadly it is also recorded in the Parliamentary Papers of the UK House of Commons that among accidents happening to troops in Jamaica in 1864 'The fatal case was caused by an accident with a traction engine'.
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I am not yet very clear what these early traction engines or 'road locomotives' on Jamaica's roads actually looked like. Boydell's machines became well-known in the later 1850s, so possibly they resemble the early machines imported into the island.
. . . . and more early traction engines -
However the quotation below indicates that engines from Aveling and Porter had been imported into Jamaica prior to 1865:
One hundred and thirty of these engines [Aveling's
Patent Traction Engine manufactured by Messrs Aveling & Porter of Rochester] are now in use in different parts of the world and are used in sugar and coffee plantations and in copper and lead mines, in dockyards and wherever large quantities of materials and heavy weights have to be removed. Messrs Aveling & Porter have manufactured and exported these engines to Russia for the government, to Jamaica, Queensland, Java, Egypt, Prussia, Buenos Ayres &c &c and the increased demand proves that steam power on common roads and in new colonies is now attracting the attention which its importance and utility justify. For feeding the traffic of railways steam traction on common roads is particularly valuable. A Catechism of the Steam Engine in Its Various Applications to Mines, Mills, Steam Navigation, Railways, and Agriculture By John Bourne (Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1865) |
and these engines would probably have looked like this:
I have not, so far, found any clear references in Jamaica to these traction engines brought into the island in the 1860s, but a later reference shows that they were replaced by more efficient models:
The Traction Engine, recently imported from England by the Government, chiefly for the purpose of conveying the heavy iron works necessary for the erection of the Dry River Bridge, was put on trial yesterday. It is a great improvement upon similar engines introduced here some years ago and was found to work very satisfactory [sic].
Daily Gleaner, May 22, 1872 |
Also, I have not found any specific references to fuel for the traction engines, but such engines normally used coal. There are many references to imports of coal into Jamaica from this period, some specifically for 'the Government', so it seems that there would have been adequate supplies of coal readily available for traction engines, and, later, steam rollers.
the 1870s
Most of the references to traction engines in Jamaica seem to occur in the 1870s so those will be dealt with next; scattered references in the 1870s show that the traction engine had become a fairly familiar vehicle on the roads of the island.
Daily Gleaner, June 27, 1872
ROAD BOARD. [of the Municipal Board of Kingston.] A meeting of the Road Commissioners was held yesterday. The gentlemen present were his honor the Custos, Messrs. Parry, Hutchings, Bicknell and.Hitchins. . . . A letter from *Col. Mann was read pointing out the localities in which the Traction Engine would be employed. [*Major-General James Robert Mann, joined the Royal Engineers in 1840 and retired in 1873. He was for a time Surveyor-General of Mauritius. In 1866 he became Director of Public Works and a member of the Legislative Council of Jamaica and held the position until 1886, during which period he was instrumental in the furtherance of many works of public utility. In 1877 on the death of Rushworth, the Lieutenant-Governor, on August 10th, he administered the Government until the arrival of Sir Anthony Musgrave on August 24th. He died at Tilehurst, England, in April 1915 in his 93rd year.] |
The following sad item shows that a traction engine was also being used outside Kingston, and that it was perhaps sufficiently familiar in the area for youngsters to feel they could try to take a ride on it.
A question in the Legislative Council (from 1866 to 1884 a purely appointed body, under full Crown Colony Government) shows the Traction Engine as an accepted vehicle for use while doing road maintenance:
Daily Gleaner, January 22, 1875
In answer to His Excellency the President, the Hon. Mr. Westmorland gave notice of the following questions to the Director of Roads . . . . Upon the consideration of the estimates to ask tor a return of the number of Traction Engines, mules, carts, *trucks, and wheelbarrows, belonging to the public, and at present in the making and repairing of the Main Roads, and the Parochial Roads, reconstructed by the Department of the Director of Roads. [*truck = a) strong horse-drawn vehicle for hauling; b) small barrow consisting of a rectangular frame having at one end a pair of handles and at the other end a pair of small heavy wheels and a projecting edge to slide under a load - called also hand truck] |
In a letter in 1879 discussing in part the proposed extension of the railway from Old Harbour to Porus the writer mentioned the problems Col. Mann had in securing a water supply for the Traction Engine working in that area:
Daily Gleaner, January 11, 1879
. . . only land such as I have described, no springs, no streams and what it cost the Main Road Board for dirty water out of water holes, to feed the Traction Engine while carrying up the Iron Works tor the Dry River Bridge, a distance of about eight miles, I am afraid Colonel Mann would hardly like to tell; but it was “Hobson's choice.” |
Also in 1879 a highly regarded jeweller, Alfred Rietti, advertised his 'Temporary place of Business opposite the Traction Engine shop, Spanish Town'. Without further information, I would assume that 'the Traction Engine shop' was the place where Traction Engines were housed and maintained - perhaps someone knows more about this?
In August of that year an item in the Gleaner dealing with the report of the Jamaica Street Car Company, then using mule-drawn cars, suggested the possible future use of steam driven cars:
In August of that year an item in the Gleaner dealing with the report of the Jamaica Street Car Company, then using mule-drawn cars, suggested the possible future use of steam driven cars:
Daily Gleaner, August 11, 1879
The application of steam to street tramway traffic has proved a success in Europe and America. In the thoroughfares of Kingston these traction engines would prove no nuisance, as they are now noiseless and smokeless, and can be instantaneously stopped by a turn of the hand. Probably economy will lead to their adoption here. A mule-drawn street-car on the way up East Racecourse on its way to the 1891 Exhibition - however, there were never steam street cars in Kingston; the street-car lines were electrified in 1899. New York had, indeed, experimented with steam-cars in 1872.
New York Times, November 10, 1872
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The 1880s and 1890s seem to have produced no references to traction engines, though they clearly still moved about the roads of Jamaica, though in what numbers I have no idea at the moment.
In 1909 detailed regulations for traction engines on Jamaican roads were issued by the authorities, but it seems highly unlikely that they were all observed by the owners of such vehicles! Presumably horses had had to become accustomed to the occasional traction engine on the roads from the 1860s, but there was still a problem, added to by increasing numbers of motor cars, in the early 20th century. And there was still reference to 'the noisy convulsions of the heavy traction engine and the trucks laden with sugar proceeding down from the estates to the wharf.' The traction engines continued to be used on Jamaica's roads into the 1930s.
In 1909 detailed regulations for traction engines on Jamaican roads were issued by the authorities, but it seems highly unlikely that they were all observed by the owners of such vehicles! Presumably horses had had to become accustomed to the occasional traction engine on the roads from the 1860s, but there was still a problem, added to by increasing numbers of motor cars, in the early 20th century. And there was still reference to 'the noisy convulsions of the heavy traction engine and the trucks laden with sugar proceeding down from the estates to the wharf.' The traction engines continued to be used on Jamaica's roads into the 1930s.
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For me the most fascinating glimpse of traction engines on 19th century Jamaican roads comes in that story that Sir George Seymour Seymour told about his father, George Solomon, at a function in Old Harbour in July 1932:
. . . . He used to own Bushy Park and there were people - of the older generations - who told him that they remembered how they cursed his father when he introduced traction engines which used to convey goods from Kingston to Spanish Town and make enough noise to wake up the dead of the whole island, and of how when one of the engines buried itself along the Spanish Town Road they got work to take it out (laughter).'
Daily Gleaner, July 21, 1932 |
So far, I have been unsuccessful in locating any other references to this episode, but it certainly rings true, as an accurate recollection! So, did something like this really trundle noisily along the Kingston/Spanish Town road, sometime in the 1880s-90s?
POSTSCRIPT: If you want to get a feel for what it might have been like to drive a traction engine, you might try reading the section entitled 'The Lady Margaret' in Pavane, (1966), Keith Roberts' intriguing accounts of England in an alternative history, or universe, in the later 20th century, when technology was still essentially back in our 19th century. This book is, by some, considered to be an outstanding and very early example or forerunner of the 'steampunk' genre.