MARSH, Sylvester [1803-1884] -- American inventor (cog railroad)

Relationship to me: 6C4
MARSH family Outline Descent Tree(s) ODT

Contents:

Chronology
Selected Works
Bookmarks (off-site links)
Footnotes
Page services

He built the cog railway up New Hampshire's 6288 ft (1916 m) Mt Washington, still in operation today after more than 130 years -- and still an exciting 37° ride¹ -- the only steam cog RR still in operation! His patents were used to build cog railways around the world, notably in Switzerland.

The 1861 patent shows a locomotive powered by a central cogwheel gripping a center notched rail. Four outer wheels have neither power or braking ability, but only support and guide the engine. The light engine is geared down to attain the power needed. For safety, multiple braking systems are included.

Chronology

1861/09/10	Patents a cog RR locomotive
1866/08/29	First cog RR (½ mile demonstration track)
1869	Mt Washington Cog RR is first (and still the only) built entirely on trestle
1869/07/03	Mt Washington Cog RR begins operation
1871	First European cog RR on Switzerland's Mt Rigi uses his patents

Selected Works

Coffee percolator (reputed, but not patented)

Cog RR locomotive (1861 patent #33,255)

Lard-rendering device (Patent)

Marsh's Caloric Grain Dryers (6 patents)

Open rung cog rail (Patent)

A revolutionary air brake (Patent)

Bookmarks (off-site links)

Works by Sylvester+Marsh
- Analyses, critiques and interpretations
- Quotations
- For sale
  - BookFinder.com: Search Results (Matching Titles) Books by or about Sylvester+Marsh
Works about
- Biographical
  - Specific periods, events, aspects. Trivia.
    - MOUNTWASHINGTON.COM: Cog Railway: History
  - Chronologies, synopses, encyclopedias
  - SYLVESTER MARSH and the MOUNT WASHINGTON RAILWAY
  - Sylvester Marsh
  - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Bay State Monthly, Volume III, No. 2, May, 1885, by Various. Sylvester Marsh, the Projector of the Mount Washington Railroad, by Charles Carleton Coffin [large file!]
- Genealogy
- Memorials, tributes, shrines
  - Suites
- Bibliographies and Link Farms
  - Open Directory The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human- edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.
  - Search engines A selection of search engines, for Sylvester+Marsh
    - About.com
    - AlltheWeb.com Index is refreshed every 7-11 days.
    - HotBot
    - Ixquick
    - LookSmart
    - Lycos
    - SurfWax® Unique and useful!
    - Teoma
    - Vivisimo
    - Yahoo!
- Discussion, interviews
Collections, archives - Papers
Historical context, background
- Places (residences, etc)
  - Endowment for Health - About Us - Our Facility
Gallery
- The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). As a character.
- Sylvester Marsh - Google Image Search

Bookmarks:2010-05-31 10:37:21

Footnotes

¹	A 37° slope is a rise of 3 feet (or meters) in every 5. This can be visualized by using two 3x5 index cards, using one as the slope of 5 inches and the other to measure the rise at one end of 3 inches.

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