Matthew Murray (1765–1826)

Murray was a British engineer who made important innovations in the early development of the railway locomotive, steam engines, machine tools and equipment for the textile industry. His ‘Salamanca’ of 1812 has been called the first commercially successful locomotive.

He was born in north-east England in 1765. At the age of 14 he was an apprentice making tinware. In 1787 he found work in a mechanic’s shop in Stockton-on-Tees and two years later he went to assist John Marshall develop flax-spinning machinery for a new factory at Leeds. Murray patented inventions for spinning wet flax that were a breakthrough for the linen industry. When Marshall installed a Boulton and Watt steam engine at his factory in 1793, Murray was put in charge of it and made improvements to its operation.

In 1795, Murray and David Wood set up their own engineering works for manufacturing textile equipment and steam engines, with support from Marshall and later an investor called James Fenton. The firm was known as Fenton, Murray and Wood. Murray patented improvements to the steam engine, including the horizonal cylinder. Around 160 people were employed. By 1804 the firm was exporting engines and other equipment, notably to Sweden and Russia, and diversified into milling equipment, boring machines and planers. The large premises included a circular erecting shop known as the Round Foundry with its own beam engine. Boulton & Watt saw the firm as a serious rival.''

In 1811, Murray worked with Richard Trevithick on a high-pressure steam engine and the next year he built his locomotive ‘Salamanca’. He introduced twin-cylinders for smoother operation. The engine ran on the Middleton Railway at Leeds using the rack-railway system developed by John Blenkinsop. Trevithick’s locomotive on the Merthyr Tramroad in south Wales previously showed the potential of steam locomotives but it did not continue in operation. By contrast, ‘Salamanca’ was so successful that Murray built three more locomotives for the railway and they continued in regular commercial use.

Other products designed by Murray included marine engines, machines for heckling flax to prepare it for spinning and hydraulic presses for packing cloth and testing chains. He was also a consulting engineer to mines, drainage projects, gasworks and waterworks. After he died in 1826, his own foundry made a cast-iron obelisk for his grave.