Thomson Road Steamer

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Williamson suggested a trial be made between an Aveling & Porter engine and a Thomson engine in “a competi­tion between two engines built upon different prin­ciples.” Each company was to furnish an engine of its best construction, with its most capable engineer to drive it. There were also going to be rules to make sure the engines were tested under varied circumstances.

Oastler responded to Williamson’s comments in a letter also published in American Artisan, April 5, 1871. Oastler defended his arguments presented in his paper, and objected to Williamson calling an official report of the British War Department absurd, noting he was not inclined to notice Williamson’s cynical and discourteous communication.

In the April 5, 1871, issue, the editors of American Artisan expressed their opinion about Williamson’s engine. “We do not believe in the practicability of plowing by direct traction, but, nevertheless, desire that its advocates should find in our columns a ready expression of their views.

“The arguments are summed up as follows in the Engineer: ‘Let us see what can be fairly urged in favor of direct traction. In the infancy of railroads the rope system of haulage was extremely popular, and precisely the same arguments were urged against direct traction by locomotives that are now used in speaking of steam-plowing … Can or cannot such an engine be produced? We hold that it can. So does Mr. Thomson of India-rubber tire celebrity, and backed up as we are by his opinion, and that of many other competent engineers, we repeat that it is highly desirable that the system of plowing by direct traction should meet with all possible encouragement. The idea is full of promise. Nothing but direct experiment on a considerable scale, carried out in the fullest light of modern experience, can decide whether the promise will or will not be fulfilled.’” 

The St. Louis Fair

Seven months later, Williamson’s letter to the editors of The Country Gentleman, published in their Nov. 16, 1871, edition corrected an error on the origin of Williamson’s engine. “My attention has just been called to an article in one of your late numbers,” Williamson wrote, “in which, is mentioned the great fair at St. Louis. You state that a road steamer and steam plow, the invention of Mr. Thomson of Scotland, but perfected by Lord Dunmore, was exhibited by D.D. Williamson of New York. Will you kindly allow me to say that the Williamson Road Steamer and Steam Plow, which I exhibited, was fitted with Thomson’s patented rubber tires, (of which invention I hold the American patents,) but that, with that exception, the machine was essentially American, and a radical improvement upon the engine built in Scotland, known as the Thomson Road Steamer.

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