Nicholas Wood

Nicholas Wood (24 April 1795 - 19 December 1865) was an English colliery and steam locomotive engineer.

Nicholas Wood was born at Ryton, County Durham, the son of Nicholas and Ann (née Laws) Wood. He attended the village school at Crawcrook and started work in 1811 at Killingworth Colliery as an apprentice colliery viewer, eventually becoming viewer and then colliery manager. He was there a close associate of George Stephenson, helping him develop his version of the safety lamp and making considerable technical contributions to the development of his locomotive Blücher. He also carried out in 1818 a series of experiments on rolling resistance, lubrication and laminated steel springs of locomotives.

By 1825 he had gained sufficient reputation and expertise in the design and testing of locomotives that in 1825 he was able to publish his influential book A Practical Treatise on Rail-roads, in which he analysed the various types of ‘motive power’ then in use: self-acting planes, fixed steam-engine planes, horses and steam locomotives. He was also invited to give evidence before committees of both houses of parliament on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Bill and then appointed as one of the three judges, along with John Rastrick and John Kennedy, at the subsequent Rainhill Trials of 1829. He republished his book, considerably enlarged by reports and discussion of the trials, as a second edition in 1831. A third edition appeared in 1838.

In 1832 he was involved in the building of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and in 1845 became a director of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway.

In 1844 he became a partner in the company that owned Hetton Colliery and moved to Hetton Hall as colliery manager. He also had a vested interests in a number of other local collieries and businesses. Following the introduction of the Mines Inspection Act of 1850 he was appointed President of the newly formed North of England Institute of Mining Engineers. As a strong believer in technical education for mining management he campaigned for a College of Science in Newcastle which eventually came to fruition after his death and was the forerunner to the University of Newcastle. In 1858 he was elected member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and in 1864 was created a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He married Maria Lindsay of Alnwick in 1827 and had four sons and three daughters. He died in London in 1865 and was buried at Hetton. His four sons all made names for themselves in the coal industry; the youngest, Sir Lindsay Wood, becoming chairman of Hetton Collieries after his father's death.

External References

• Nicholas Wood on Safety Lamps