William Judson Addis
William Judson Addis
William Judson Addis, was the engineer to the local funds committee in Tannah (later named Thana and now Thane), a fortress town on the island of Salsette, 21 miles(34km) north of Bombay. It was also the site of the first railway to open in India with the opening of the ‘Bombay (Boribunder) to Thana’ section of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) on 16 April, 1853 and the Tannah Viaduct which opened in 1854.
Railway Achievements
- 1868, Addis’s Iron Permanent Way
In 1868 the first Patent that Addis was granted was for “Improvements to Permanent Way of Railways” [1] Under this system “instead of laying conventional track using two parallel tracks held by spikes or chairs to wooden sleepers”; each rail would be supported by three wrought iron curved plates bolted together with plates to form a triangle and held together by a tie-bar to maintain the track gauge. Each unit was 3 feet in length and spaced 6 feet apart [2]. In 1870 the ‘Engineer Journal’ reported that the that its great weight being 108 tons 16cwt per mile would make it a very expensive system [3].
- 1869, Addis’s Single Rail Tramway
In 1869 Addis was granted a Patent [4] for a tramway with a single rail on which runs a cart with two bearing wheels which take all, or nearly all, the weight; and ordinary wheels which serve to steady the machine and prevent over-turning. The cart, loaded with three tons, was easily drawn by two bullocks [5]. In 1870 a further Patent was granted concerning improvements to the track system [6].
The advantage is the cost of the tramway with the haulage cost reduced to a minimum. The rails were laid at the each side of roads leaving the centre part for ordinary traffic; as the rails are only 1½ -2 inches(3-5cm) above the surface of the road they would scarcely interfere with ordinary traffic [5].
This became the first monorail to be in use in India and became known as the Addis System Monorail- see this page for further information
References
- ↑ UK Patent No 1068 28th Granted March 1868
- ↑ ‘The Engineer’ 11 Dec 1868, page 450 (‘Grace’s Guide’ pdf 16) “Addis’s Iron Permanent Way”; Retrieved 9 May 2017
- ↑ ‘Engineering Journal’ 18 March 1870 page 184 (‘Graces Guide‘ pdf15) “Addis’s Permanent Way” ; Retrieved 9 May 2017
- ↑ UK Patent No 1850 Granted 14th January 1869
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 “The Engineer” 17 Jun 1870, page 377 (Graces Guide pdf 5); Retrieved 9 May 2017
- ↑ UK Patent No 90 Granted 12 January 1870