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Post by Kev on Aug 30, 2004 15:00:31 GMT -5
The first Steamroller...was purchased by Liverpool City Council in 1867.
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Post by Howie on Sept 9, 2004 16:45:13 GMT -5
These early rollers were built in collaboration with the inventor William Batho and usually known as 'Batho' rollers. The best known picture of the Batho roller is that of Aveling & Porter No.1, the famous 'Liverpool Roller', the first production road roller in the world, built in 1867. The wonderfully clear print, from a glass negative, shows an engine superficially very similar to the one now discovered. No.1 was quite different in appearance to later steam rollers, a massive machine weighing 30 tons with 7ft diameter leading rolls. It must have been amongst the most impressive vehicles ever to move on the public highway.  Interestingly, research by Jeremy Viewing at the Lincoln Museum archives shows that No1 was not the first steam roller to be delivered, as has always been supposed. In fact, there was a second 30 ton roller, No2, which was delivered a month earlier to a French customer, according to Aveling's own dispatch book! Source: www.ranger.demon.co.uk/aveling/aveling.htm |
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