Leicester Chronicler - The Steam Whistle

Although some commentators credit a certain Cornishman, Adrian Stephens (or Stevens in some accounts), as the inventor of the steam whistle, it is more commonly agreed that an event on Saturday 4 May 1833 in Leicestershire led to the invention of the railway engine steam whistle. The true story may be that Stephens should be credited with the invention of the device, but failed to patent it. Stephens died in 1876 in Merthyr Tydfil, and it is known that no patent for the device existed in 1865.

A collision took place on the level crossing in Leicestershire to the east of Leicester between Bagworth and Thornton, when the engine driver Martin Weatherburn drove the engine Samson into a cart containing 50lbs of butter and 80 dozen eggs which was heading towards Leicester Market.

Martin Weatherburn was the son of Robert Weatherburn, a longstanding engineering friend of Stephenson who was the first man to drive a locomotive on the Leicester to Swannington line. Martin first worked on the railways in Liverpool and then followed his father to Leicestershire. His youngest son, Harry, was born in Leicester. Harry, after his father's death in 1868 travelled to Australia on board the SS.Great Britain and worked on the railways there.

One collision on the Swannington line, caused by Martin Weatherburn driving his locomotive Victory too close behind another locomotive Comet, led to him being suspended for a time, and adds some weight to the suggestion that the collision with the market cart might have been the result of reckless driving.

The accident, although it is reported that no-one was injured, was deemed to be serious enough to warrant Stephenson’s personal intervention. One account states that Weatherburn had `mouthblown his horn' at the crossing in an attempt to avert prevent the accident, but that no attention had been paid to this audible warning, perhaps because it had not been heard.

Stephenson subsequently called a meeting of directors, and accepted the suggestion of the company manager Ashlin Bagster, that a horn or whistle which could be activated by steam should be constructed and fixed to the locomotives. Stephenson later visited a musical instrument maker in Duke Street in Leicester, who on Stephenson's instructions constructed a ‘Steam Trumpet’ which, just ten days later, was tried out in the presence of the board of Directors.

Stephenson mounted the whistle on the top of the boiler's steam dome which delivers dry steam to the cylinders. The device was apparently about eighteen inches high and had an ever-widening trumpet shape with a six inch diameter at its top or mouth. The company went on to mount the device on its other locomotives.

There is another account that sets the invention of the steam whistle against the actual opening of the line in 1832, rather than associating it with a specific incident.

A cannon was fired that was specially cast for the opening of the Leicester and Swannington Railway to salute the new steam locomotive "Comet" on it’s inaugural run (driven by Robert Weatherburn). It is said that a stationmaster who was present for the ceremony and celebration, suggested to Stephenson that all new locomotives should have some kind of audible warning device. Stephenson agreed, and a local man who made musical instruments, was commissioned to design and to build a prototype "steam trumpet."

Leicestershire was of course a strong hunting county, and several businesses in Leicester and her surrounding market towns were supported by the hunting fraternity. The use of a musical horn in hunting was common place as it was in the coaching industry.

In appearance, Stephenson's prototype steam whistle was therefore similar to a huntsman’s horn. It measured about eighteen inches long and six inches across at the top.

Steam whistles were of course used in other industrial applications. Factories used whistles to announce the beginning and ending of shifts. Steam tractors used whistles to call for more coal or water. Ships used whistles signal other vessels. Even small machine shops and foundries used small whistles as signals of various sorts. Some specialised whistles were used as fire alarms and some were used on steam powered fire engines. The Liverpool and Manchester railway is said to have adopted steam whistles on their locomotives, not by following the example of the Leicester to Swannington line, but after a visit by a member of their staff to Dowlais Iron Works in 1835 where a device designed by Adrian Stephens was in use.

Steam whistles work by releasing large volumes of steam into chambers, called pitch pipes. Smaller chambers produce a higher musical note, and larger chambers produce a lower musical note. Most steam engine whistles used a combination of pitch pipes (usually six different sizes) to produce a musical chord.

Another type of steam whistle uses two cups, usually made of brass like an upside-down teacup, sitting on top of one right-side up. When steam is released into this, it whistles.

Some material drawn from C. E. Stretton, The Development of the Locomotive , 5th ed., London,1896, pp. 50-52
and from biographical accounts of the Weatherburn family by Robert Weatherburn.

Black & white images from Whistleman.com and used with full acknowledgement
Other image © Great Central Railway