science

Steam Elephant

Steam Elephant is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Steam Elephant rather than just read about it. In short: Steam Elephant was an early steam locomotive from North East England. Historiography An illustration of the locomotive first came to modern attention in 1931 and it was then generally assumed to be the work of George Stephenson.

Key takeaways

Steam Elephant belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Steam Elephant to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Steam Elephant from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Steam Elephant was an early steam locomotive from North East England.

Historiography An illustration of the locomotive first came to modern attention in 1931 and it was then generally assumed to be the work of George Stephenson. More recent interpretation is based on research carried out at Beamish Museum for construction of a replica. This interpretation is based largely on contemporaneous paintings (one being the earliest known oil of a steam locomotive, by an unknown artist) and other material from the Museum archives. It is from the paintings that the name Steam Elephant has become associated specifically with this locomotive.

Description and interpretation

Steam Elephant was a six-wheeled locomotive of Stephenson gauge. It was built for the Wallsend Waggonway, an edge railway now known to have been of 4 ft 8 in gauge. As with Stephenson's Killingworth locomotives of the year before, it had a centre-flue boiler with two vertical cylinders of about 9 by 24 inches (230 mm × 610 mm) set into its top centreline. The cylinders drove slide bar mounted beams which turned crankshafts driving the axles through 2:1 reduction gears between the frames. It had a tall, tapering chimney, the lower part being surrounded by a feedwater heater. It would have weighed about 7.5 tons and had a top speed of around 4.5 miles per hour (7 km/h) and a load capacity of about 90 tons over a short distance. It is now considered to have been designed by John Buddle and William Chapman for the Wallsend Waggonway and colliery at Wallsend on the north bank of the River Tyne in 1815 using metal components supplied by Hawks of Gateshead. It appears originally not to have been very successful at Wallsend, probably due to lack of adhesion on the wooden rails there, nor on trial at Washington. Following the introduction of iron rails at Wallsend, it had a working life there longer than many contemporaneous locomotives, until at least the mid-1820s. There is evidence that it was then rebuilt for use at the Hetton collieries, working there for a further decade.

Replica Steam Elephant was recreated by Beamish Museum to work with passengers on its standard gauge "Pockerley Waggonway" in 2002, being assembled by Alan Keef. The replica was designed and built by engineers Ross Clavell, Jim Rees and Dave Potter, finished in 1998. Clavell also designed and built the famous weather vane atop the engine shed at Beamish.

References

Illustrations

Steam Elephant: Steam Elephant from an 1820 painting — Steam Elephant from an 1820 painting

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Steam Elephant

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Steam Elephant claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Steam Elephant before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Steam Elephant ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Steam Elephant

In research: Steam Elephant appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Steam Elephant in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Steam Elephant is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Early steam locomotives, Individual locomotives of Great Britain, Standard-gauge locomotives of Great Britain, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Steam Elephant outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Steam Elephant in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Steam Elephant means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Steam Elephant out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steam Elephant in simple terms?

Steam Elephant was an early steam locomotive from North East England. Historiography An illustration of the locomotive first came to modern attention in 1931 and it was then generally assumed to be the work of George Stephenson.

Why does Steam Elephant matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Steam Elephant?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Steam Elephant.