| 'The Rocket Farmer's Train' Standing Pewter Wilhelm Schweizer Code: 3170 Handmade German Pewter Zinn by artist family Wilhelm Schweizer! "Die Rocket" "Steam Train" "Cattle vehicle Rocket" "The Rocket Farmer's Train" "Viehtransporter" Five Cars, Farmer's Train. Size: 12 1/4" in Length x 4" tall. 31 x 10 cm tall. The Rocket was not the first steam locomotive. In fact, the first to run on tracks was built by Richard Trevithick 25 years earlier, but his designs were not developed beyond the experimental stage. Then followed the first commercially successful twin cylinder steam locomotives (The Salamanca) built by Matthew Murray in Holbeck for the Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds, West Yorkshire. George Stephenson, as well as a number of other engineers, had built steam locomotives before. Rocket was in some ways an evolution, not a revolution. Rocket's claim to fame is that it was the first "modern" locomotive, drawing together several recent strands of technological improvement, some tried elsewhere and some still experimental, to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day, and the template for most steam locomotives since. In fact, the standard steam locomotive design is often called the "Stephensonian" locomotive. Rocket used a multi-tubular boiler, which made for much more efficient and effective heat transfer between the exhaust gases and the water. Previous locomotive boilers consisted of a single pipe surrounded by water. Rocket had 25 copper tubes running the length of the boiler to carry the hot exhaust gases from the firebox. This was a significant development, as it greatly increased the amount of steam produced, and subsequent designs used increased numbers of boiler tubes. Rocket also used a blast pipe, feeding the exhaust steam from the cylinders into the base of the chimney so as to induce a partial vacuum and pull air through the fire. Credit for the invention of the blast pipe is disputed between Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and Timothy Hackworth. The blast pipe worked well on the multi-tube boiler of Rocket but on earlier designs with a single pipe through the boiler it created so much suction that it tended to rip the top off the fire and throw burning cinders out of the chimney, vastly increasing the fuel consumption. ---- The unparalleled Wilhelm Schweizer of Bayern hand painted pewter! Known as Zinn in Germany, these pewter ornaments, whether standing or hanging pewter, are truly heirlooms in the making. Hand made and hand painted by the talented artisans of Schweizer Pewter of Germany, they are made today precisely the same way they were made hundreds of years ago. And in the same place! In the little Bavarian village of Diessen am Ammersee. The standing and hanging ornaments are hand painted on both sides. The window and wall hangings are painted on one side. Please note that since these are all hand painted, the same mold may appear different from the ones we show. That's the charm of Schweizer! Begin your family tradition now, future generations will thank you. Handmade German Pewter Zinn by artist family Wilhelm Schweizer in Diessen am Ammersee Bayern. Artist Wilhelm Schweizer German Standing Pewter Zinn - The Rocket Farmer's Train |