Diary of Jeremiah Head
Diary of Jeremiah Head, railway engineer for Robert Stephenson and Co, part founder of Fox, Head and Co, 1857-1858. Jeremiah Head worked at Robert Stephenson and Co (RS&CO) from the age of 16 for five years (1852 – 1857. He served three years and a half in the pattern-making, fitting, and erecting shops, and the remaining year and a half in the drawing office (the diary covers the drawing office period). He worked on the design and build of two compound mill engines for Henry Pease and co and Annandale and Sons during the period covered by the diary. He met Edward Pease, and this is detailed in the dairy (see auctioneer’s description). He worked for Robert Stephenson 1857- 1859 to reconstruct Rowland Burden’s cast iron bridge over the River Wear. He worked on the design for a steam plough based on an idea conceived by John Fowler of Leeds, he won the prize at Chester Show in 1858 and the plough was made under his direction at RS&CO, also covered in diary. He went to work for Kitson and Co in Leeds and then became managed of John Fowler and Co’s Steam Plough Works until 1860. He went on to found the firm Fox, Head and Co work included manufacturing iron plates.
Auctioneer’s description: Mechanical Engineer, - Head (Jeremiah, railway and steam engineer worked for Robert Stephenson & Co., part founder of Fox, Head and Co., 1835 -99) Diary, autograph manuscript, 149 pp & 21 pp. index, slightly browned, original morocco, slightly rubbed, 8vo, 1857 – [58]. An interesting diary, filled with Head's work for Robert Stephenson & Co, "At R.S. & Co's we have just got an order for 50 locomotives for the Lombardo-Venetian line", and other projects including designing regulators for steam mills, and designing steam ploughs for John Fowler. Includes a meeting with Edward Pease (1767-1858), woollen manufacturer and railway promoter, "By & bye old Neddy came in, shook my hand & said he had often wanted to see me. He is a remarkably fine pleasant well-informed old man 90 years old & as brisk as most men of 70. He talked a deal about the Stephensons &c... I was delighted to to have made the acquaintance of a man so celebrated in the history of railways". Includes a detailed family tree.